The Past is The Future
by Freddo
Summary: As the ThunderCats try to rebuild morale after the defection of Pumyra to Mumm-Ra's side, LionO, Cheetara, and Tygra discover some truths about themselves, some pleasant, others unpleasant
1. Chapter 1

THE PAST IS THE FUTURE….

A ThunderCats Fan Fiction work by Frederick P. Kopetz.

The original copyright to ThunderCats is held by WB Productions © 2012. No infringement is intended; this is a non-profit fan work.

Chapter One: Differences

Third Earth

Temporary Campsite

First Thunderian Epoch: 1506 May Tide, Sixth Day

"How could you have let this happen?" cried Cheetara as she used herbs and poultices to work on Tygra, her current beloved. "Tell me, LionO-HOW?"

"Cheetara, we were overwhelmed by the Monkian Commander's forces, and while I was trying to save both myself and Kit, that dart flew in and hit Tygra before I could stop it!"

"You let this happen, I'll warrant," hissed Cheetara.

"I…LET this happen? How could I? He's my brother!" protested the Lion King as his brother moaned, unconscious, near their campfire while Cheetara worked her clerical skills on him. Or tried to, since she was getting a sinking feeling that the vile auto- crossbow dart that had hit Tygra was poisoned.

"I had the Sword of Omens, and I was trying to keep Kit from being beheaded in that battle, and I couldn't stop this! What kind of a King am I?"

Panthro walked up and stroked LionO's armored back. "The sort who's not afraid to fight and get his hands dirty, thank Heavens. Cheetara, darts fired by Monkians don't have any sort of intelligence or morality. It could have hit any one of us, and LionO's counterattack did get those damned simians to retreat back into the woods…"

Tygra just moaned in counterpoint, lost in some dark, cursed, poison dream.

Kat looked on as he petted the Snarf and asked, "Cheetara, is he going to get better?"

"He will if you quit shoving your paws into things, Kat," snapped Cheetara. It had been three months since they had crashed the floating city, and…three months since they had learned that Pumarya was a traitor who was just using LionO for her own purposes.

For three months now, both the lion king and the Cleric had been at odds with each other, both because the King was snapping at everyone and everything and seemed to have a hard time concentrating on his office, and because Cheetara had been growing closer to…him.

Now, LionO thought. Now, she's accusing me of letting this happen. I can't let her go on believing such things….

"Cheetara," said LionO.

"What?" she snapped. She glared at him as if she was ready to slap him.

"He is my brother, and we have had…issues. And I will admit, I was less than happy with you two becoming a couple, before, and after…she came."

"And why is that?" demanded Cheetara.

"Because I…I…I…cared about you," LionO said.

"Oh?" said Cheetara. "Well, if you do care for me and your brother, go gather some kingsfoil in the brush. It'll help heal him in your hands. If, indeed, you are willing…"

Cheetara then turned away from him. LionO got up and got the Sword. "Panthro, guard the camp. I have to go for a while."

"To gather what?" said Panthro.

"Kingsfoil; the rare healing plant that King Leo's people named…after a scrap of an ancient Human bit of fictional lore that his ancestors found. He liked that story, or so it has been passed down. If I can find that healing plant, I'll do it."

And, without any preamble, LionO left in search of the kingsfoil.

END Chapter One…..


	2. Chapter 2

THE PAST IS THE FUTURE….

A ThunderCats Fan Fiction work by Frederick P. Kopetz.

The original copyright to ThunderCats is held by WB Productions © 2012. No infringement is intended; this is a non-profit fan work.

Chapter Two: Viewpoints

Third Earth

Temporary Campsite

First Thunderian Epoch: 1506 May Tide, Seventh Day

Tygra began to moan somewhat about six hours after the argument that Cheetara had had with LionO.

"I'm worried about him," said Cheetara in a dull, listless voice as she stroked Tygra's cheek.

"I'm worried about YOU," said Panthro.

"What do you mean?" sighed Cheetara, who looked too tired to say much. She had taken off earlier to be by herself, where she had been forced to be sick in the bushes, twice. She had no idea what was wrong with her? A virus of some sort? And she had been so irritable lately…

"Number one, you nearly fed LionO his own mane before, Cheetara. And he was just tryin' to help, you know…"

Cheetara shook her head, rubbing her hands through the sweaty blonde hair on her head.

"I wish I knew, Panthro," said Cheetara. "I feel so dark, lately. So much unlike myself. And, where is LionO? The King has been taking too long."

"You failed him in that battle," said Panthro.

"Failed him?" sighed Cheetara. "Yes, he's me King, but, Tygra's the one I love, and…."

Cheetara then clenched her fingers and toes, and then put her face in her hands and began crying. "My emotions…I can't control them…what's wrong with me?"

Panthro was about to respond, but, suddenly they heard Kat challenging someone. Panthro and Cheetara turned to their weapons, but the response came. "It's just your King. Who, it seems, can seemingly do no right, tonight…" LionO appeared, keeping Kat on guard. Snarf was asleep next to Kit, who was the only member of the little band spared from this sad and rather sordid argument this evening.

Cheetara looked up and smiled a little. "Look what the cat dragged in," she said with a slight smile. Her intent was to add a little bit of levity to the grim proceedings. Kat looked at her and shook his head.

_What's getting into her?_ Kat thought. _I asked her if she needed to take a long bath in the stream the other day, just because she looked sweaty and hot, and she jumped down my throat, too. Good thing Tygra got her to calm down. What's her problem? Is she sick?_

Instead, LionO just looked at her and said, "I found the kingsfoil. Do you have water on the boil?"

"Luckily, I was able to get that right," she said, sounding a little more like herself. "LionO, please listen. I don't know what got into me before…I…"

"Oh, I have an idea, but I'm going to keep my own mouth shut, my dear Cleric," said LionO in a flat, hurt voice. "You wish it was me like that so you and he can…?"

"_LionO_!" barked Panthro. "This has gone far enough, BOTH of you! We have a cat down here, and what are you doing? Acting like spoiled teenagers instead of a King and a Cleric! You'd think you two were the couple around here!"

"LionO, I never thought that," said Cheetara. "You are my King, and I've been a horrid Cleric lately, and I'm sorry. Are you hurt, too?"

"I'd rather not get into that now," he said. "Here's the kingsfoil."

"You found some nice leaf," Cheetara said, patting the leaf…and LionO's hand. The touch was electric, and brought back memories that LionO submerged. It was obvious. She had chosen Tygra, and there was no place in her heart for him.

_She probably can't even stand to look at me right now, I'll bet_, sighed LionO to himself, tired and on edge. _I'm wondering when she and Tygra are just going to go off and leave us to our own devices…_

Regardless of the breach between them, Cheetara and LionO worked together in boiling the leaves, turning them into a sort of poultice that they placed on Tygra's leg.

LionO put the poultice on himself, blowing on it, and then, he stood aside while Cheetara checked it and reached into herself and willed some of her own energy, her own ki, back into Tygra.

Then, with a slight smile, she took LionO's hand and said, "Peace offering…of sorts…"

"What?"

"The energies I can draw upon," she said softly. "I'm giving you some heart, some peace, some quiet, and some restfulness."

"There's no love, I bet," said LionO.

"You might be surprised," Cheetara said. "But…not the same love I have for your brother…a different sort."

To everyone's shock, Cheetara embraced LionO for a moment, and then she lay down beside Tygra, holding him as he moaned again, and then murmured, "Bad…horrid dreams…"

"Let me take them away, " Cheetara said quietly. She covered both of them up in the bedroll, placed a hand on his forehead and sang to him. Then, she began to sleep a very uneasy sleep.

LionO also went to sleep, alone, but feeling some measure of warmth and peace due to Cheetara's ministrations.

Cheetara slept a deep sleep that night, until a strange dream hit her.

Mumm-Ra was the first thing she saw in the dream, dread, terrible, horrible.

"I am as old as Time Itself!" roared the demonic priest. "Even I had a beginning…in ancient times, on First Earth, when Humanity was young…"

Cheetara saw herself facing him in the dream strangely clad, in something that seemed like a silvery breastplate, cloak, and white skirt.

"You have no idea what is hidden within you," hissed Mumm-Ra. "I need the crystals…and I need what you and the others have to be complete…"

"What is it?" said Cheetara.

Cheetara saw the veil of time slipping back…or so she thought.

For a moment, she saw Mumm-Ra on ancient Earth, one of a number of priests and sorcerers in a dark Temple somewhere. She saw strange pictorial writing on the wall, strange drawings of things that looked like snakes, keys, and birds walking on two legs, and she was somehow aware that Mumm-Ra was once a Priest of the Temple of Set.

Set. The very name itself made Cheetara shiver in her strange dream.

She saw Mumm-Ra, shaved bald, except for a forelock, clad in a white version of the loincloth he wore I his Ever-Living Form, taking lessons in what she sensed was sorcery from another priest who looked much like him, but who looked older, stronger, and, if one can say it, more commanding, even though the second Priest's face was a bit thinner.

Cheetara saw the Priest's eyes, and shivered. If anything, this Priest looked more evil than Mumm-Ra himself, and then, she heard them speaking.

The older Priest said to Mumm-Ra, "You learn well, Aket-Ra, my dear, _dear_ Apprentice. But you have _so _much to learn, and so much that you need to take measure of, before you can truly serve…at My side!"

Then, Cheetara turned her head from this dark vision, to a vision where there was a hall filled with fire.

A woman, long-haired, apparently unclad, but gleaming with light, swung a sword like a dervish, having just run through Mumm-Ra himself. Mumm-Ra's teacher, whoever and whatever he was, was in this battle, which Cheetara guessed was on another world somewhere.

To her shock, beings that looked like her people, but larger, stood backing up the gleaming woman, but she just took hit after hit from Mumm-Ra's Master before she clapped her hands and began to send him away, down some sort of passageway that opened before her hands…

The scene changed again…Cheetara felt sick as she saw Mumm-Ra, again, now mummified, in a ruined hall that she sensed was a house of worship, in the middle of a burning city, backing up, again, his hideous Master, who now had armor and looked more like a walking machine than any sort of man. Cheetara saw many being fighting him this time, but with the attack led by another woman, with shorter, strawberry-blond hair, also burning with light, who seemed to, if anything, fight even harder than the first woman had. She had on a white uniform and long coat of some kind, and was backed up closely by a man in a black coat…

Then, the scene changed yet again…another woman, also in white, raised her hands and made incantations, casting Mumm-Ra into a sarcophagus as another city burned around them while planes and ships took off in the distance, and locking it, gasping and closing up the box with her final breaths.

Then, Cheetara woke up.

Tygra was awake.

"What the heck were you dreaming?" he mumbled. "You were murmuring all these weird words in your sleep, something about First Earth, then, Second Earth…"

"I don't know," said Cheetara.

"I'm worried about you," mumbled Tygra. "I was having a weird dream…too…I…why does my leg hurt?"

"Simian poison," spat Cheetara. "What was your dream about?"

"Cradles," said Tygra.

"Cradles?" she said.

"Yes, empty ones," he said back as he held and kissed her. Then, he looked at her and asked, "How long has it been since...the last time…you…"

"How long?" gasped Cheetara, knowing what she was talking about. She had taken him into her confidence ever since they had become…intimate…not yet Bonded, but…Bonding…

"How long since the last time of the Scarlet Moon?"

Cheetara blushed at this euphemism, and she said, "I don't know. Tygra, I honestly…don't know…"

She held her weakened lover, and fell asleep again to the sounds of the forest.

END Chapter Two

TO BE CONTINUED….


	3. Chapter 3

THE PAST IS THE FUTURE….

A ThunderCats Fan Fiction work by Frederick P. Kopetz.

The original copyright to ThunderCats is held by WB Productions © 2012. No infringement is intended; this is a non-profit fan work.

Chapter Three: Atonement (Part One)

Third Earth

Temporary Campsite

First Thunderian Epoch: 1506 May Tide, Eighth Day

Cheetara continued to dream, as she realized that she was…somewhere.

"Where is this place?" she mumbled out loud. Except for her staff and her usual clothing, she was alone.

She looked up at the night sky; what she could see of it, anyway, in her dream. "The stars are strange," she observed. "All of the constellations are different. Is this Third Earth?"

She looked at the night sky, and saw gloomy clouds overhead. She could hear the sound of howling wolves in the distance.

Cheetara noticed she was in a valley, looking at a dark lake with some tendrils of mist blowing in over it in the dreary wind. The lake was at the bottom of a bowl in a valley with mountains surrounding it that were as broken and ancient as rotten teeth.

The water began to swirl in a dark whirlpool, and then, to Cheetara's shock, a being emerged from it.

He was clad in grey and black, and great black wings came from his back.

"Who…who are you?" said Cheetara.

"I almost had your beloved in my grasp, Cleric," said the Being in a deep, rolling voice. "But, you have taken him from my grasp. For now, anyhow…" he said as a cold wind blew back his cowl, revealing gleaming green eyes for a moment. "I am called Abraxas, or, as some call me, the Angel of Death…"

"The…Angel of Death?" gasped Cheetara.

"I am not Death itself, merely, one might say, the great Psychopomp; the Messenger who is in charge, with my dark Angels, of conducting the dying to their final destinations, whether it be the varying degrees of bliss of what one might call Paradise, for those graced and favored, but, I also conduct the Dead to a much darker destination…the place of screams, woe, and Darkness eternal…the home of the Damned," said Abraxas. "This I have been charged to do, and this I will do, until Death itself, someday, is tossed into the Pit…"

"Do you decide who goes…where?" said Cheetara.

"No. Higher Authority makes that Judgment, Cheetara. I was asked to bring you here, because an old friend wishes to give you counsel, along with some High Ones you have never before met…"

"Jaga is dead," said Cheetara.

The waters swirled, and, a moment later, gleaming with blue light, Jaga's gentle but strong spirit emerged from the waters of Abraxas' Lake.

"My body may be dead," said Jaga. "My spirit lives," he said. "And…Cheetara, I am very disappointed in you…"

"Jaga," said Cheetara as tears ran down her cheeks. She looked at him and said, "I know what I have done. I have failed you, I have failed LionO, and I have failed the Order." She held up her wrist and her ankle, clad in her gauntlets and sandalboots with their rhomboid weights. "I am no longer worthy of wearing these…I have broken the Vow of Celibacy…and perhaps…I should atone with my Blood."

"You will not do that, for you need to live on for a different purpose. Yet I cannot release you from your vows, since I no longer live," said Jaga. "That will be the job of your King."

"I have to plead to LionO for atonement," said Cheetara.

"You also need to seek atonement from Tygra…and from the life within you," said Jaga in a soft voice.

"I'm…pregnant?" said Cheetara through her tears.

"Go seek out the monks of the Elephant village. They can confirm it," said Jaga. "You will have choices to make…since you do not live now for yourself, any longer."

"Jaga…I failed LionO, and…even though I have loved Tygra, was I fair to him, Master, that I sought his arms before we were Bonded?"

"It takes two to make a life," said Jaga. "If anyone is at fault, it is both you and Tygra. But things must change…"

"Our future, afterwards?" said Cheetara.

"That is not clear to me," said Jaga. "And, I can go on no longer about the future, but, I have brought with me, Three who can offer you great Counsel on the path that you have taken since you have left the path of being a Cleric…"

Cheetara looked as three ghostly lights appeared from the whirlpool from behind Jaga.

She gasped as the lights began to turn into the indistinct forms of three tall females, almost as tall as Jaga himself.

"Humans…" she said. "Those…were what Humans looked like," she said as the forms began to appear.

"Not just any Humans," said Jaga. "Two of them were from beyond First Earth, from the stars…from ancient times before the memory of the oldest Thunderian. The third form is from the end of one Age on First Earth itself, and she saw the Ages turn as Second Earth began; Earth, among the stars at last, and humanity in its greatest hour before it allowed itself to be destroyed on Second Earth by Mumm-Ra, and before it scattered to the stars."

Cheetara looked at the women. One was gleaming all over with a bright, golden light, friendly, and beautiful. She was unclad, except for a silver circlet about her brow, and a bright star-like light burned at her brow, above her keen, yet gentle eyes. She smiled at Cheetara, and nodded, silent. Silent, but utterly majestic.

The second woman was in a blue gown with low cleavage. Her glow was blue, gentle, and calm. Her long strawberry blonde hair blew about her brow, and her eyes were the gentlest of the three women, yet filled with a deep age and wisdom.

The third woman was the youngest of the three, if age counts among those who last lived over ten millennia ago. Her hair was shoulder-length, and a honey-blonde in color, yet her dark brown eyes were both gentle and very keen; almost like a cross, if one could imagine such a thing, between Jaga and Panthro. A Fire burned in those eyes, and she was clad in a thin white gown that barely hid the white Light that burned from her slender form like the Sun in its strength. Finally, a Light brighter than the first woman's burned at her brow near the silver circlet she wore; it burned so brightly that it hurt Cheetara's eyes in her dream, yet the Light was beautiful, and a small rainbow burned in the Star that burned on her brow. And, last of all, she had a White Orchid in her hair.

"Who are you?" said Cheetara.

"Three of the Reverend Spirits," said the first woman in a gentle but ringing voice. "You may have heard of us, in your training. I last lived and walked on the soil of a world fourteen millennia ago. My Name is not important."

"Our Names…we were known by many of them when we lived," said the second woman. "Yet, all three of us were Queens, and, in a sense, all of us were warriors."

"I still am a Warrior, at times," said the third woman in a firm yet gentle alto voice. "Yes, both myself, and my Beloved…even though he's off…flying somewhere, as usual. Your Lord LionO would have liked him a lot, I think."

"What do you fight?" said Cheetara.

"Things like the worst nightmares I fought in Life over eleven millennia ago, when my bones, which are now almost only dust in their lonely grave, were alive. Things that you would wish you never had seen," said the third woman again. "The like of Things that Mumm-Ra consorts with. May the Great King curse his vile name!" she hissed.

Jaga bowed his head at the Queen's outburst, until the first Queen spoke again. "All of us were loved and we loved men. Love was the same for us as it is for you; new, beautiful, and blind…"

"Giving, but blind at times to consequences," said the second Queen.

"Beautiful, but with the beauty of an exquisite, two-edged sword that pierced my heart," said the third Queen. "If you love, you must be prepared to sacrifice. If you love, indeed, you must sacrifice. If you love and fight, you must remember, as an old friend of mine once said, 'Love is the first casualty of War'. Yet, how could you be with a man before you really bonded to him?" she said. "I waited until my wedding night. Was that too hard for you?"

"I have truly failed you…yet…" said Cheetara.

"Not that there is anything wrong with passion-in its proper place-said the third Queen. "My beloved and I had long lives and we had many children together. That which is within you-is special, and sacred."

"Thus, since are with child, Atonement through Blood is not open to you now. Not with a life inside you," said Jaga. "You need to find Atonement…through other means…remember, your King needs you…you really should have remembered your Oath and Obligation to protect your King first…"

"I should have," said Cheetara. "And I will try to make atonement…"

The Reverend Ones bowed as one, and the three mighty women passed back into the whirlpool, back to from whence they had come. Jaga bowed and went back down the whirlpool, followed by Abraxas.

The wolves howled in Cheetara's dream again, and Cheetara awoke.

To her shock, she found she was alone.

"Where's Tygra?" she said.

"Out trying out a crutch," growled Panthro as he sat on a rock whittling something from a branch. "What's _your_ problem?" he said.

"He couldn't stay here?" said Cheetara.

"He wanted to get to the Thundertank, and so help me, if he tries driving it, I'll mess up his other leg," said Panthro. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"We have to get to the Elephant Village. As soon as possible," Cheetara said. "Where's LionO?"

"Off doing sword moves," said Panthro. "I was always wondering. Aren't clerics supposed to be celibate?"

"How…did you…?" gasped Cheetara.

"The way you look at Tygra…it's obvious," said Panthro with a sigh. "Not to mention that someone glimpsed you two in the thickets the other day…"

"Who?" said Cheetara.

"I need not say," said Panthro. "And I won't."

Cheetara looked down at her toes. "Maybe we should leave, and then…go off on our own…"

"Cheetara," said LionO as he came from nowhere. "We need to talk. Now."

"Of course," said Cheetara. "Where should we go?"

"Sit with me in the forest," he said.

Cheetara and LionO walked a long distance in silence. They sat down together in a clearing as Cheetara began to remove her wrist gauntlets and weights, followed by her sandalboots and ankle weights.

"What are you doing?" said LionO.

"I had a dream last night," she said as she removed her gauntlets and boots and laid them at LionO's feet. "You know I'm with Tygra. My relationship with him has reached the point where I've compromised my vows as a Cleric; my vow to protect you. Jaga appeared to me in a dream last night, along with three of the Reverend Spirits of the past…"

"The Reverend Spirits," sighed LionO. "Our antithesis to Mumm-Ra's fabled Ancient Spirits of Evil."

"Yes," said Cheetara.

"They all told you to resign?"

Cheetara nodded sadly. "And to face your judgment. I'm prepared to accept banishment from your presence, Majesty. I should atone through Blood, except…"

"Jaga appeared to me, too," said LionO.

"When?"

"In a dream, as he did with you. You're with cub. I know that," said LionO formally.

Cheetara just nodded.

"Put back on your gauntlets and sandalboots," said LionO. "I do not accept your resignation."

"What?" said Cheetara.

"At least, not for the moment," LionO said. "You'll train Kit to take your place, and continue training her until such time as your pregnancy prohibits you from doing your duties. Then, your resignation will be accepted, and I will free you from your vows, and I will also free you from your formal obligation to atone for your deeds. You're pardoned because you need to live to mother your cub. This is what you want, right?"

"It is," said Cheetara. "It is what I must have. To…to…just cleanse my soiled honor, before you."

"You can cleanse your honor in the formal sense by just faithfully discharging the new orders I have given you," said LionO. "When you do that much, and I dispense you from your vows, you and Tygra can leave us, if you wish, to find a safe place where you can raise your cub," LionO said, formally, yet gently, but with his heart breaking, knowing how far their relationship had gone. "Where is Tygra?"

"I told him what I suspected last night, LionO. As to where he is…when I woke up, he was gone. Panthro said he's healing, and he was up trying out a crutch," she said as she put back on the symbols of her rank; symbols she would not have for much longer.

"Hmm," said LionO, nodding his head sternly. Cheetara saw a sudden sternness in him. It was as if this experience had hardened him even more. Then, he said, "When do you wish to have your bonding ceremony with…with my brother?"

"Bonding ceremony?" said Cheetara.

"Well, you two are having a cub. You should be bonded," LionO said. "As King, I have the authority to override you and well, marry a Cleric. Especially one I've just pardoned, you know," he said, looking sad for the first time.

"I…"

"It's nothing," LionO said, determined never to discuss his feelings with Cheetara again. It was best if things between them remained formal.

"I'll always be your friend," Cheetara said. "I'm…sorry that things went so far, so fast…I…"

"Accepted," said LionO. "Let's get back to the camp. Before he gets jealous and thinks someone is putting the move on his bondmate."

_Bondmate,_ Cheetara thought. _Not yet bonded, and LionO already sees me as Tygra's wife. Where, where did my sense go? I love Tygra, but…did I want this? Really? I never meant to betray my King…this deeply…_

It was a very confused young Cheetah who followed her King back to camp.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	4. Chapter 4

THE PAST IS THE FUTURE….

A ThunderCats Fan Fiction work by Frederick P. Kopetz.

The original copyright to ThunderCats is held by WB Productions © 2012. No infringement is intended; this is a non-profit fan work.

Chapter Four: Atonement (Part Two)

Third Earth

Approaching the Elephant Village

First Thunderian Epoch: 1506 May Tide, Thirteenth Day

Tygra was working on regaining his strength.

He now was able to hobble about on a cane as he walked with Cheetara one day.

"So, we're going to be bonded at last," said Cheetara. She kissed Tygra, but he just gave a her a look.

"You're pregnant, and you're resigning your role as a Cleric," he said flatly.

"Well, I went against my vows that day in the thicket," she said. "And I didn't see you going to stop me…"

"If your vows were that important to you, why'd you do what we did?" said Tygra. He gave her a look that made her heart stop, as he said, "Should we find a thicket again?"

"No, Tygra, not now," she said. "This is serious."

"Serious?" he said.

"I'm giving up my life to be with you," she said. "Don't you think you should take this a bit more seriously?"

"You're being silly, Cheetara," he laughed. "We used to have a thing for having fun. Ever since I got hurt, you've been acting like the dead body at your own funeral…"

"Tygra, I don't find that funny. Our King still needs our service, and I intend to serve him as long as I can…"

"Ah? Until when? When you get too fat there to carry your staff anymore?" he teased as he patted her stomach.

Cheetara looked at him hard, with tears in her eyes. "If we weren't going to be bonded today, I'd slap you across the face for that."

LionO came into the woods a moment later. "How's the happy couple doing?" he said with a slightly sardonic smile.

"All right, "said Cheetara.

"She's getting all duty-bound again, my dear Brother," he said. "She says she still needs to help us find the Stones…"

"Well, that is the reason we're out here," said LionO. "Until you two go off to set up housekeeping, as is right and proper. Any ideas where you're going, yet?"

Cheetara shook her head, but Tygra said, "I was thinking of a place by the beach, private, nice, calm, no one would bother us…"

"Yes, until we suffer from the next Lizard raid," said Cheetara.

"Nothing to worry about if I defend our casa de casas," said Tygra with a flip grin. "You'll be farming and growing our foods…"

"How exciting," said Cheetara as she rolled up her eyes.

LionO shook his head at them and shut his eyes. "Your first martial spat?"

"The second of many," said Cheetara.

"You shut up!" said Tygra. "You made your own damn bed, and now you have to go sleeping in it. Literally," said Tygra with an evil grin.

"Excuse me, guys, while I go talk to Kit about some things I have to train her in," Cheetara said with ice in her voice as she ran off, hoping the King and Tygra didn't see the tears welling in her eyes.

"What's _with_ her?" said Tygra.

"She's with your cub," said LionO. "Legend has it that women at this time always get moody; part of the changes the body goes through."

"We're going to have to leave the team sooner rather than later if she keeps on acting like this," said Tygra.

"You could try to be more patient," said LionO.

"I treat her better than you ever did," said Tygra.

"But you can't blow hot and cold here, Brother," said LionO. "Here, you're going to be a father soon. For her, you have to be the strong one, and you have to learn how to grow up. Very fast."

"How fast?" said Tygra.

They heard yells in the distance.

Then, they heard the Thundertank's main blaster going off, along with the yells and cries of assorted Monkians.

"You're going to have to make that _very_ fast!" said LionO. "Make sure she's all right, and then get her into the Thundertank!" he snapped.

Tygra took off at LionO's heels, going as fast as he could on his bad leg.

"I want you to finish them off!" yelled General Addicus like a maniac as drool ran from his ugly mouth. "Then I want you to bring me the dead Cats! I'm hungry today! Cat meat would go down very nicely!"

"Yessir," said another Monkian.

WilyKit was caught in a trap that one of the Monkians had sprung from a tree. "Kat!" he yelled as WilyKat tried to hold off two of them on her hoverboard, using a staff that Cheetara had made for her and which she had just began to wield.

"Don't worry, I've got your back!" she yelled bravely as she literally brained a Monkian who jumped right for her.

"Get into the Tank!" yelled Panthro over the new PA system from the cockpit.

Cheetara wheeled around when she saw Addicus coming for her.

She wielded her staff, and she held off his war club as he laughed and sneered at her and said, "How would you like to have the lights put out on you permanently, she-cat?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing!" Cheetara retorted viciously as she shoved her staff into Addicus nose; quite hard enough to break it.

"DAMN you!" roared Addicus as blood spurted from his nose.

He swung his war club hard at Cheetara as she yelled, "Tygra, where are you?"

She spotted him in the distance and said, "Hurry!"

"Doing my best!" he said as he got into the battle and swung his whip at Addicus as LionO jumped onto a rock and drew the Sword of Omens.

The war club shot missed Cheetara, and she parried it and slammed Addicus in his arm.

He bellowed, and, struggling free of Tygra's whip, he swung the war club at Cheetara again.

It hit her in the stomach.

Cheetara gritted her teeth, ignoring the pain as Tygra roared, "Cheetara!"

He threw some throwing stars at Addicus as Cheetara staggered and just avoided his grasping hands.

LionO jumped into the scene a moment later, slashing hard at Addicus as weapons fire went off all around them.

"You damn Cat!" roared Addicus as he hit LionO in the face with his club, but then LionO responded when he almost severed one of the Ape's hands with the Sword of Omens. "Where do you get that fight from? You should be defeated by now!"

"When you attack my people from ambush, you _deserve_ what you're going to get!" LionO yelled in return.

A moment later, some missiles fired from the Thundertank, hitting the Monkian hover-vehicles both left and right.

"This isn't over, Lord of the Thundercats, so-called!" roared Addicus as he saw the carnage and began to retreat. "I'm going to get the three of you and eat you one of these days!" he snarled as LionO slashed at him again and put him to flight.

"Cheetara, help Tygra up!" snapped LionO. "Both of you get into the tank, and now! Good fighting from you both, but I don't want you two hurt!"

"Right," said Cheetara as she gritted her teeth while helping Tygra up.

AN HOUR LATER-IN THE THUNDERTANK…

The Thundertank was on the move, heading towards the Elephant Village.

Cheetara had just finished bandaging LionO's wounds, shrugging off the pain in her stomach as just a hard hit from Addicus.

"I'm fine," she said as she bandaged the bruise on LionO's cheek. "Tygra, how's your leg?"

"I can move it, and you rebandaged the wounds, but you could have done a better job with the numbing herbs," he said.

"Like we can gather more in the heat of battle?" snapped WilyKit. She looked at LionO and said, "At least none of us were killed, and we took only fairly minor wounds this time."

"I could have done better and killed Addicus," said LionO.

"Hey; you gave him a wound he'll remember, and our trip to the Elephant Village will alert Anet to the fact those Monkians are back on the move," she said. "Kat, you all right?"

"Doing fine once you got me untied from that trap," said WilyKat. "Sorry I didn't have a chance to get to the Bag, I…"

"You people did all right," said Panthro over the PA as the Tank stopped.

"Why are we stopping?" asked LionO.

"We're here," he said.

They got out of the Tank, and saw Anet and the other Elephant monks coming toward them.

LionO spoke quickly with Anet, explaining the situation.

A moment later, Anet turned to Cheetara and Tygra and smiled.

"My understanding is that there is a Bonding at hand?" said the Elephant Abbott with a smile.

"There is," said Tygra. "Cheetara and I have decided to Bond, and we are here asking you and LionO to bless our Bonding."

"That sounds well and good; there are some other Cats that have shown up in the past Moon, and they'd like to attend the ceremony," Anet said.

"What sort of Cats?" asked Panthro.

"Members of another Tiger clan," said Anet. "They came here a few days ago, seeking LionO. They must have heard of his desire to unite the animals, and they'd like to join your band."

"How many are they?" said LionO.

"About twenty-eight, and I lead them," said a white Tiger who came up to LionO and bowed to him. He had a cultured accent, like the sort that the nobles of Thundera had used. The white Tiger had on two-tone blue armor, a blue cloak, and navy-blue sandalboots of his own. He was older than LionO; about thirty-five, but he was hale and strong, and in his own way, a battle-hardened warrior like Panthro who carried himself with a similar confidence.

"Bengali!" said LionO. "I have not seen you since I was a cub! My father Claudus knew you…"

"It's about time that I gathered my people from the shadows, and decided to renew our alliance, my Thunderian King," said Bengali. "We have heard of your guerilla war against Mumm-Ra, and since Mumm-Ra and I also have…what shall you call it…issues? I will be happy to join your cause. I have with me twenty-one males of fighting age and ability, two or three females who can fight, and one female with two cubs."

"I can fight, too!" said one of the cubs, a cute white Tiger boy in pants and a jerkin who swung at Cheetara with a staff.

Cheetara laughed and said, "I don't think we need anyone to fight today. What's your name?" she said as she gritted her teeth slightly. Why was her stomach hurting like this, on this day, of all days? Was it some bad candy-fruit?

"Tambor. I'm the son of Tallet the swordsman, and my mother, Kyla, the healer."

Kyla, a gentle-looking Tiger female with a baby cub in her arms, smiled at the group; she had on a purple dress and wrap-around sandals that wound up her legs.

"Are there more of your people, Lord Bengali?" said LionO as he walked off.

"Yes; some of them inhabit the ruins of Thundera. We're helping the former slaves from Mount Plundarr clean up and rebuild. You should eventually return there, Lord LionO, and re-fortify the city as a base," said Bengali.

"That might be worth considering, except that we are in an effort to find some ancient artifacts," said LionO. "We have to be on the move."

"Yes, but you will need a base of operations," said Bengali. "A few of us have gone down the Causeway, and a few are working on retaking the ancient port city of Tineras from the Lizards so that we can re-establish trade with the rest of Third Earth by sea…and some are counseling that it might be a good idea to re-open the ancient spaceport that was once there."

"Why do you say that?" said LionO.

"The old Early-Warning net has been reactivated by a technician who works with us," said Bengali.

"And?" said Panthro. He smiled at Bengali and said, "Not that I'm complaining, Lord Bengali. You sure are a sight for sore eyes…"

"We've picked up activity on it," said Bengali. "I think it's near the edge of the star system, but there's something out there. Just another thing we have to worry about, and another reason, Lord LionO, why we need to form a common defence. And quickly."

"Bengali, you have no argument from me," said LionO as the Lord of the Thundercats clasped hands with the Lord of the Northern Tiger Clan. Unlike other Tigers, who tended to be loners, the Northern Tigers were an organized Clan who had served Thundera in the past, always allied with them as a kindred Nation of their own.

"It's my understanding we have a Bonding to attend soon," said Panthro as he nodded at LionO. He glanced at Tygra, and then at LionO and whispered to LionO, "Send them to the city with the others, LionO. Let Tygra pull his weight there as one of your Chamberlains while we continue the search. Cheetara's not going to be much good to us soon when she begins to show with cub…"

LionO looked at the couple as they argued good-naturedly, looking somewhat sad. But, Kit tapped him on the shoulder. "We move on, LionO. They move on, and so do we. Cheetara's been teaching me well, and we can take some time here, and then let them set up housekeeping in the city in the Chamberlain's House near the old Palace. When I'm trained, we can go out on the road again and resume our search for the Stones."

LionO nodded sadly, but Kit gave him a gentle nudge. "As a Team, LionO. And we can go back to the city for supplies and rest."

"Good thought," said LionO.

The bells of the village began to ring.

"It's almost time," said Kit.

The Snarf mewed and snarled as he chased a butterfly.

Cheetara had ended up in a hut in the Elephant Village with Kyla, who had undressed her, bathed her, put her hair up, and dressed her in a white dress she had that looked lovely on her slim frame.

"Should I be in white?" said Cheetara. "I'm pregnant," she said as she grunted a little.

"Are you all right?" said Kyla.

"I had a fight with some Monkians this morning; I took a blow in the stomach," said Cheetara. "I was trying to protect both my soon-to-be Bondmate and my King. I didn't do a very good job."

"It was a good effort, I'm sure," said Kyla. "I thought I saw a bruise on you in the bath, but I didn't wish to say anything. Sorry. You should have a healer look at you after the wedding. And the white is the best dress I have."

Cheetara just nodded. "Thanks for understanding. I wish my Bondmate was so…"

"And if he's not at his best, are you sure you wish to marry him?"

Cheetara thought for a moment of some of the slights she had taken from Tygra, but she also thought of his kindness…at times…and of the flower… "I'm on a road I can't turn back from now," she said. "I have to marry him, for our Cub…"

"Love is blind," said Kyla gently. "But, well….never mind…you're in love," sighed Kyla. "Let's go out."

Soft music played, and WilyKit added a melody with her flute as Tygra went up an aisle, trimmed in Day Astrids, where he met Bengali at the altar. The Northern Tiger Lord had agreed to stand with him at the wedding, and Kyla would be Cheetara's attendant.

LionO stood silent, thinking of the words that he had gone over with Anet. Both he and the Abbott would be officiating at the ceremony.

Finally, a young Northern Clan Tiger girl went up the aisle with an Elephant, both of them scattering flowers as Cheetara came up the aisle, accompanied by Kyla, who had put on a black dress. WilyKit came behind them, guarding the two women with her staff.

Cheetara looked beautiful, like other brides had in ages past, both in the days when Animals had ruled and when Humans had ruled First and Second Earth before them. Her dress was white, and she had flowers in her hair, including both a Day Astrid and a White Orchid, in memory of the Reverend Spirit of Good she had seen wearing the same sort of flower in her hair as one Age intersected with another for a moment.

Cheetara smiled at Tygra, who smiled back.

LionO began with, "Dearly beloved, Cats of all sorts, Elephants, and others. We are here today to see this Lord, Lord Tygra, plight his troth and Bond to the Lady Cheetara, Cleric who has decided to leave the Order in her time and to train WilyKit to take her place as the next of my Clerics."

"If there be anyone who objects this day to this Union, let them speak now, or forever hold their peace," said Anet.

He paused, and then, to everyone's shock, another one of the Northern Clan cats came up, in her own white dress, which matched her white fur.

"I sure object," she said with an evil grin on her face.

"Why do you object?" said Cheetara as another burst of pain hit her.

"Because, my dear little ex-cleric…there's a very good reason," said the Tigress.

"Why?" said LionO. Tygra just stood in silence. He finally said, "Chaniell, I thought you were dead…I thought you died in the attack on Thundera."

"Why is this important?" demanded Cheetara indignantly.

"Do you forget, Tygra?" said Chaniell with a voice like poisoned honey. "Or were you too fogged on wine to remember that before the Lizards came…we were Bonded that night in the Traders' Quarter? You can't bond with this warrior, Cheetara. He's mine."

"Why…you…" said Cheetara as she went to slap Chaniell across the face. But, she didn't get far.

A bolt of pain hit her in the stomach, and she collapsed, right on LionO's feet.

"Anet!" yelled LionO. "Get the healers!"

TO BE CONTINUED….


	5. Chapter 5

THE PAST IS THE FUTURE….

A ThunderCats Fan Fiction work by Frederick P. Kopetz.

The original copyright to ThunderCats is held by WB Productions © 2012. No infringement is intended; this is a non-profit fan work.

Chapter Five: Requiem for a Hope

_Note: I've decided to do a little editing in response to some reviews and messages-mostly to stretch things out a bit timeframe-wise...Freddo_

Third Earth

In The Elephant Village

First Thunderian Epoch: 1506 May Tide, Fifteenth Day

The next two days for Cheetara were days where she was barely conscious.

For her, it felt as if she was seeing the world through a gauzy filter, barely able to respond.

Anet was there, along with Kyla, Kit and Kat, LionO, Panthro, Bengali…and some of the other Elephants and Northern Clan Tigers.

There was no sign of Tygra or…her…

Finally, a morning came where Cheetara was more or less able to comprehend things.

She lay there in a light shift in a tent, and tried to get up, but Kyla came to her and said, "Just lie there and rest."

"Where…am I?" said Cheetara.

"You're still in the Elephant Village," said Kyla. "You haven't gone anywhere."

"Where's Tygra? I have…things to say to him…"

Kyla looked gently at her and said, "Tygra's left your group; at least for now."

"He…left the group?" said Cheetara as tears of shock ran down her cheeks.

Kyla nodded. "Your Tygra and Chaniell had…words with LionO, Panthro, and our Lord Bengali. There was a fight of some kind; I only glimpsed it. When it was over, Tygra was beaten. Badly. He's now wearing an eye patch…"

"An eye patch?" said Cheetara.

"Yes. Lord LionO took one of his eyes in their fight. They came close to killing each other."

"By the Reverend Spirits…" gasped Cheetara as she put her face in her hands. Had it truly come to this? Something like….she knew if the Kingdom was still together, it might now be civil war. She said, "Anet, is Tygra claiming the throne?"

"No. There was talk of…a trial, but Tygra decided to merely accept the censure of being reassigned elsewhere by LionO instead. He left with Chaniell and six of our warriors yesterday to form his own band. LionO assigned to him the mission of retaking more of the port city of Tineras. He left a letter with LionO, but we don't think you're well enough to read it yet."

"His Bonding with…her?"

"That was a large part of the reason for the fight. LionO used his Sword to help determine what had happened. His use of his Sight beyond Sight confirmed what Tygra had done. He had been drinking so much wine that day that he had forgotten it afterwards, but it was held that his Bonding with Chaniell was indeed quite legal. LionO held off on formal bigamy and adultery charges owing to the circumstances of the matter, but he did call his brother out and there was a duel for honor, which I just told you about. Tygra was beaten but LionO spared his life to reassign him and banish him to Tineras. Lord Bengali himself has volunteered to take his place in your band, for now."

Cheetara lowered her head. "What about me? It takes…two to create an adulterous relationship…"

LionO came in a moment later. He looked gently at Cheetara and said, "Due to the circumstances of this matter, Cheetara, there will not be any sort of trial for you. If anything, after what the Sword of Omens revealed to me, you're the innocent party, and we've all judged that you've suffered enough. "

LionO went silent. "I'm so sorry, Cheetara, that he stained your honor by doing what he did. I should have looked into this matter with the Sword long before it came to this point. I let my emotions override my cold logic, and I failed all of us as a King."

LionO gently put his hand on hers. "I have something else that I need to tell you, but it's up to you if you want to hear it yet or not."

"I'm still aching…below my navel," said Cheetara. "Why…?"

Kyla shook her head and looked as if she wanted to cry. "Should I tell her, M'Lord?" said the Healer.

"No, let me do it," said LionO. "It's my responsibility. I let her get into that battle, where she tried to defend herself, and she tried to protect him…and me…from Addicus."

LionO took a deep breath and said, "You were gravely injured in that battle. You should have been checked as soon as we reached the village, and it was my fault for not having done so. That blow to your stomach…affected…"

"How's the cub within me?" said Cheetara.

LionO's eyes filled with tears. "You almost died from that blow, and you're going to be rather weak for a few days. As for the cub…there isn't one…any more. You lost the cub."

"By the Reverend Spirits…" sobbed Cheetara.

"You are held to have…atoned…through Blood," said LionO sadly. "That's why there will be no punishment…and, when you recover, you can take up your Clerical rank again, if you wish to. I'm so sorry, Cheetara," LionO said formally as he kissed her cheek.

Cheetara just gave up, held his hands, and wept.

Kyla wiped her eyes and gently left the tent.

Cheetara thus cried, and cried, and cried until there were no more tears left for her to cry.

She felt very, very desolate, and would have given anything to be held by Tygra again; but now, she knew that would never happen.

She had been abandoned.

THREE DAYS LATER…

Cheetara dressed in her old clothes and sandalboots and slowly came out of her tent.

"We're glad to see you up and about again," said Panthro in a quiet voice as she came out into the sunlight.

"Thanks," said Cheetara.

She looked around. The dais where she was to have been bonded was still there, and there were posies in one vase on the left and white orchids in a vase to the right.

There was a pot that held a Day Astrid where she had stood when she had begun to bond with…him…

Cheetara finally picked up the pot, tore the Day Astrid out of it, and threw the pot on the ground.

She viciously tore apart the Day Astrid, imagining it was _his_ face she was attacking.

Then, she threw it to the ground, weeping.

She heard someone coming. It was LionO.

"Whose idea was this?" she said.

"One of the Northern Clan women…it was in memory of the child who was lost."

"I see," said Cheetara. She held up the ruined Day Astrid in her hands. "I'm sorry for the rage. I don't think I can bear looking at one of these flowers again. Ever. The young man I knew who was gallant? He's dead to me now."

"There are other flowers that might suit you better, Cheetara," stammered LionO. "I…I'm not very good at this. I'm sorry."

"At least you're honest and not _smooth_…like he was," sighed Cheetara.

"Is that a good thing?" said LionO.

"Better than lies," said Cheetara. "Does he still have any rank?"

"I gave him the new rank of Lord of Tineras before he left, and now he wears the emblem of the Shipwrights," said LionO. "His former Thundercat emblem is now on Bengali's breast. Bengali was my second in the duel. I started the duel myself. Bengali stood by me, and as for his symbol, he earned it."

Cheetara nodded at that. "You called him out for me…"

"Yes. You were the wronged party, Cheetara, and he should have known better than to play games with you when he was in fact already bonded. Even if he thought she was dead."

"I never thought I would be dueled for, before," said Cheetara. "I'm touched."

"It was your honor that was in question," said LionO. "It had to be defended. The Code demanded it," he said formally.

"I see…my King…" said Cheetara.

"You're wearing your Clerical garb again. Have you made a decision on that yet?"

"Yes and no," sighed Cheetara. "Although I've made my own decision. Can I call out Chaniell someday? I…"

"You're not quite well enough, yet," said LionO. "Give yourself some time to heal. We set out again in search of the fourth Stone in a few days if you wish to come. We have an idea where it is, at last."

"Where?" said Cheetara.

"Somewhere in the East," said LionO. "Its trace was picked up in the Book of Omens the other night. It is very powerful. Not as powerful as…the War Stone, but…it is said to be the most ancient of the Stones. It may be as old as Second Earth, possibly First Earth, itself."

"From the Days of Chaos," Cheetara said. "The days where the legends say that one of the Reverend Spirits moved the Earth off its foundations…days when, it was said, the Ancestral Cats were still alive in the stars. The Ancestral Cats, who were held to have served one of the Reverend Ones."

Cheetara shut her eyes. For a moment, she beheld a terrible vision of Third Earth itself moving into some sort of opening in space; fleeing from a huge black War Machine covered with multicolored lights that made Mumm-Ra's space going Black Pyramid seem small. There was a glimpse of a huge spirit burning with light and power, protecting the Earth as it reappeared in a different star system, and became, for a time, the twin planet of another blue world that looked much like it. A strange, haunting music in a minor key filled the scene.

Then, Cheetara opened her eyes, and the horrid vision was gone. "It was the past," she said. "Like Tygra and myself."

LionO patted her hands and said, "We set out in four more days. Destination…who knows?"

Time passed.

Five days later, they had left, and they were beginning to head towards the East.

Cheetara observed the cycle of the month changing as they travelled, as Maytide went towards Firstsummer.

Abouth a month after the events in the Elephant Village, on the sixth day of Firstsummer, Panthro was driving the Thundertank as they rode along in the night.

Cheetara, still a bit woozy and tired from her trials in the past few weeks, found herself sitting next to LionO in the Tank. Bengali was on top at the missile array, keeping watch, and the kits and the Snarf were asleep. It was just them.

Cheetara looked at LionO and said, "I have a question for you?"

"What is it?" said LionO.

Cheetara bit her lip. She looked at her King. _He's been nothing but supportive, the past few weeks,_ she thought._ I may be mad, but I have the sense that...what? Maybe he cares. May really cares..._

"I need a legal precedent answered, LionO," asked Cheetara with a quavering voice. _There_, she thought. _I got that much out. Now, the rest...hard to believe I am thinking this, five weeks after he...abandoned me, for her...but...I'll go out on a limb._

"That is?" he said, puzzled.

"If a Cleric, let us say, falls in love, if such a Thing were possible, with a King…a Lord of the Thundercats…what would happen?" Cheetara asked.

"Well, it is not without Precedent," said LionO. "Graulus and his Cleric Kalida. Lord Tambor the Great and Tesha, his Cleric. There was no punishment meted out to those Clerics, due to the mercy of their Kings," said LionO. "But they had to stop being Clerics on their Bonding Day…"

"Because they became Queens?" said Cheetara.

"Yes," said LionO. "Is there a precedent here, Cheetara? Why are you asking me this?" he said as his heart leapt a little.

"No particular reason," said Cheetara. "At least, not for now. Let's go on the search for the Heart Stone, LionO. For now, you have two Clerics. Myself, and Kit. That's a good thing, isn't it?"

"Yes," said LionO, quietly. "It's a good thing…"

She gave his hands a pat, smiled at him, and she fell asleep.

She thought, _Well, at least...now, maybe it is not out of the question. If...if...he does really care, and is not just being sympathetic..._

She was still very, very tired…though.

Five weeks after losing _his_ cub.

It would be a while...

TO BE CONTINUED….


	6. Chapter 6

THE PAST IS THE FUTURE….

A ThunderCats Fan Fiction work by Frederick P. Kopetz.

The original copyright to ThunderCats is held by WB Productions © 2012. No infringement is intended; this is a non-profit fan work.

Chapter Six: Travels and Plots

Third Earth

On the Way to Tineras…

First Thunderian Epoch: 1506 Fifteen days Past Midsummer Tide

Tygra walked along carefully with Chaniell guiding him.

He was in pain. Both his leg and the place where his lost right eye had been were stinging and burning horribly.

Yet, he kept up a fair pace towards the west, towards Tineras, as Chaniell held him by one arm.

"I'm shocked you could have forgotten me so easily, " Chaniell said in a low voice as they stopped to get some water.

"All right; if you have me that much, why not just abandon me?" he snapped.

"Now that I've managed to find you again, Prince, I am not about to give you up so easily. Nor to let you forget your…position," she said.

"LionO betrayed me," he said. "I am his brother, but…"

"You betrayed him first, with you and that…Cleric…" Chaniell said with distaste. "Or, that's my guess?"

"He had no claim on Cheetara. My claim was older and goes back to childhood with the Day Astrid," said Tygra.

"Then why did you bond with me?" Chaniell snapped.

"Because I thought her a lost cause," said Tygra.

"I am no…lost cause…" said Chaniell. She kissed him, fiercely. "And you should be more than a Prince that the Lion King dismisses at his pleasure…"

"What should I be, then?" said Tygra.

"You are greater than the King, I understand?"

"Yes."

"You have always bested him?"

"Yes, in almost every test. And our father favored me."

"Then, shouldn't you be King? And shouldn't LionO be in his grave?"

"He should be," said Tygra. "Twice, I almost put him there…"

"Let the third time be the last time, and let it be done without guilt," whispered Chaniell. "So I can be your Queen…"

"When, then?" said Tygra.

"Not now. He is on that idiotic Quest for the fourth Stone. Maybe that will do him in?" Chaniell said. "And, then, while you build up your forces in Tineras, you can take the city of Thundera back. Then, we can defeat Mumm-Ra and his Mutants, and then, crush our opposition, and…rule Third Earth. For ourselves. Not for the benefit of the other animals…for our benefit. You will enslave them and crush the Lizards and other beings. Because, aren't cats meant to be on top?" purred Chaniell.

"And if LionO returns?"

"WE kill him and take back the Sword of Omens," purred Chaniell. "And you take it."

"I like that idea," said Tygra. "Very, very much…"

They kissed, and found a convenient thicket.

Soon, the kissing became more intense, and Tygra forgot his pain…as Chaniell began to give him exquisite pleasure….

Third Earth

The Far East Islands of N'pangyo

The City of Shinedo

Four Days Later….

"Someone, Lord, has shown an interest in the Hidden Treasure," said the blind Lynx mystic as he bowed deeply towards the Tanuki known as Lord Osagi, who was the Shogun of the people of Shinedo and its environs.

"Who is it, Lynx-O?" said the grey, fat, amusing-looking Badger who sat in his robes on a dais at the far end of the meeting hall in his castle.

"It's hard to see with my Third Eye, _Chokan_," he said, addressing the Badger (or Tanuki) Lord by his preferred honorific. "You know that, long ago, Mumm-Ra had my eyes put out when I said I could and would no longer serve him. My eyes were put out and I was left to die until a caravan of your people found me and brought me here from The Endless Steppes. But, I see just fine in my crystal with my Third Eye, my own Sight Beyond Sight," said Lynx-O. "But, what I see is the dust of Mumm-Ra's latest invasion."

A Samurai-Clad Tanuki in armor came in and bowed low before Osagi. "What is it, General Miyamoto?"

"Lord, I met a Cat fleeing from what was Thundera."

"What _was_ Thundera?" said Osagi.

"Yes, _Chokan_," said Miyamoto. "This young Jaguar tells us the worst has happened. Mumm-Ra has attacked Thundera, and it fell to him almost a year ago, Lord. "

"Then, General?" said Osagi.

"The Jaguar who was fleeing tells us that Lord Claudus is now dead. It is thought his son rules what remains of the Thundercat guard."

"Which one?" snapped Osagi. "Is it the ineffectual Lion….or, the Tiger who once gravely insulted me when he met me when he made an embassy years ago to Shanjing?"

"We do not know," said Miyamoto.

"The Lord of the Thundercats is only a boy. I know that," said Lynx-O. "But let the Crystal decide. If he comes this way, it will either accept him…or reject him. It is a great judge of character…"

"Our Crystal," said Osagi. "Our greatest possession. Made, they say, long ago, possibly by one of the Reverend Ones, burned and refined by a very Goddess in the Fire of the Mountain long ago, before our ancestors could even speak. Our ancestors have a memory of this Goddess, a warrior and mystic, both, they say, with a gentle heart but fire for a heart. Any thought to what the Thundercat Lord may want if he comes here?"

"Not yet," said Lynx-O. "That is hidden from me."

"If the Lion comes, welcome him," barked Osagi. "If the Tiger comes…"

"Yes, Lord?" said Miyamoto.

"Kill him," said Osagi as he clapped his hands once. Lynx-O and his courtiers left the Tanuki Lord alone.

Third Earth

The Vicinity of the Endless Steppes

Thirty Days Past Midsummer Tide

"LionO," said Panthro as he stopped driving the Thundertank.

"Yes?" yawned LionO, who was beside him in the cockpit of the Thundertank.

"We've come further than I've ever come before. Only Claudus and Grune ever came this far to the east…"

"And, my brother, they say," said LionO. "It was when I was a child, cared for by the nursemaids after my mother died. "Tygra always used to talk about his great journey. How much further?"

Panthro looked at the Book of Omens and sighed. "A long way, yet. Far, far beyond the sunrise. I think possibly even beyond the City-State of Shanjing. The maps all stop here. They say no Thundercat has ever been east of Shanjing. No one knows what lies beyond it."

Cheetara came up with Bengali, both of them laughing at some shared joke as Cheetara seemed to have her old spunk back.

"Don't worry about Bengali," laughed Cheetara as she smiled at LionO. "His jokes are funny. Unlike those of another Tiger we knew."

LionO smiled at Cheetara, and she smiled back. Nothing had been said about their cryptic conversation almost two Moons ago, now. Yet, LionO noticed that Cheetara, while continuing to train WilyKit, on the theory that "Two Clerics to protect the King are better than one", as she put it, was now again nothing but supportive of most of his ideas. And, where he came up with bad ideas, she pointed out his errors gently, with tact, the way she had used to.

One thing LionO also found significant was that she had never said Tygra's actual name again after that day. She just referred to him in passing, when she had to, as "A Tiger we knew" or, "The Lord of Tineras."

LionO didn't know much about what was going on back West at Tineras, which was on the shores of the Western Sea. What little he knew he gleaned from the Sword of Omens and from the occasional messenger from Tineras who flew up in a modified fighter and landed. The pilot was invariably one of Bengali's men. The White Tigers of the Northern Tiger Clan had acquired fighters of their own, with improved range. However, Belaq, the Tiger pilot who usually landed and greeted them, said that soon, the fighters would be beyond their range when they went deep into the Endless Steppes.

What the Endless Steppes, to Cheetara, were happened to be mile upon mile of flat, dreary land. Some of it was hot, bare dirt and grit that got between her toes and made her paws ache when she ran on it for too long, while other parts of the Steppes were endless grassland.

The country looked bleak, and somehow foreboding.

LionO looked at Cheetara, who stretched and said, "It's grassy today. If I have to run, I can run on this landscape. Maybe I can run forever," she said with a slightly witty grin.

"The Thundertank can't go on forever without Thundrillium," said Panthro.

"And I can't go on without Candyfruit," said WilyKit.

"You can go find some food," said Cheetara.

"Remember how that went last time?" whined WilyKit.

"Our stores are running low. We're going to have to do that soon," said LionO.

"Awwwwww," said both Kits as they moaned while Bengali gently shook his head.

LionO was growing to like this Tiger. Bengali was truly brotherly and supportive, where Tygra had been trying to show him up, all the time. Bengali had shared a few secrets with him around the fire one night, and LionO learned that trust was something Tygra had never seemed to give him. And, he was repaying the White Tiger's trust with trust of his own.

Cheetara came up beside LionO and shaded her eyes upon the horizon. "Something's coming. Look at that dust cloud by those hills."

"Take a look through these, Cheet," said LionO.

"Cheet," teased Cheetara. "Is that supposed to be an endearment?" she said with a wink.

"Maybe," said LionO. "It seems to fit you somehow," he said.

Cheetara smiled and took the macrobinoculars. "It's a good-sized party. Vehicles….travelling at sixty rhills, I think…"

LionO looked himself and said, "I think you're right. Someone knows we're out here. Panthro! Get some armament ready…just in case…"

"When they get closer, should I run ahead and do a recon run?" said Cheetara. "Your call, my King…"

"Do it if they stick to their current course," said LionO. "Kit! You may have to serve as Cheetara's backup!"

"I like that idea," said WilyKit with a wicked smile.

She tensed for action.

An hour passed.

The group grew close enough for them to see without binoculars a while later.

Cheetara looked on and said, "Need that recon run?"

"Do it, if you're in shape to," said LionO.

"In shape?" said Cheetara. "I've _missed_ this!"

She gave LionO a pat on the hand and ran off, becoming a mere blur about a rhill away.

Cheetara ran like the wind; her feet touching grasses, grit, and then dusty sands. She guessed she might have to take her sandalboots off after this run and soak her feet…if they had time.

She ran until she heard horns in the distance. They did not sound friendly.

She then ran around until she saw what looked like grotesque cyborgs, with helmets topped with horsetails, riding what looked like ugly mutant beasts.

Looking more closely, she saw that some of what looked like the Chieftains of this grotesque band had helmets topped with horns, and their Leader, an ugly bearded thing with a huge helmet, was blowing a horrible horn.

Then, he roared, at the top of his lungs, "We can see that party ahead, aye, my Berserkers!"

"Berserkers!" roared one of the ugly Chieftains of these gruesome riders of the Steppes. "Berserkers! BERSERKERS!"

"What is thy will, _Khan_ Hammerhand?" roared one of the ugly cyborgs.

"To drink, and then _to kill_!" roared Hammerhand as he raised his drinking skin.

Cheetara ran up, and bashed him in the face with her staff like a blazing star.

Then, she said, "Try to kill us! IF YOU CAN!"

"Get that bitch!" roared Hammerhand as he fired a blaster at Cheetara.

Cheetara ran back towards the Thundertank, running like the very wind itself.

She knew she had to get back in time to give a warning.

And, off she ran.

Even as she ran, lasers licked at her heels.

But, on she ran.

Far away, in the Black Pyramid, Pumyra stood smiling, looking into the boiling cauldron of water as she watched the scene.

"The Cats have encountered some old friends of mine, Lord," said Pumyra as she bowed before the ugly red-cloaked vision that came up from the shadows.

A Mummy stood there, stinking in a slow, dry sort of desiccation, wrapped in decaying bandages, with his claws scratching across the floor.

"Ahhh…yes, a nice little band of _Berserkerrrrs_," hissed Mumm-Ra. "You said you know this little band, Pumyra?"

"Yes," said Pumyra. "I encountered them once. The Khan and I have an understanding."

"How did you manage that?" said Mumm-Ra.

"Sometimes, it is better not to ask too many questions," said Pumyra with a twisted, butch grin.

"With you, I've come to learn that," said Mumm-Ra as he kissed her hand. "Your advice?"

"Leave them be," said Pumyra. "I won't have to kill LionO. The Berserkers will take him to Shanjing."

"Do we want that?" said Mumm-Ra. "That'll bring him closer to what I seek, in the East."

"You misunderstand me, Lord," said Pumyra. "All of LionO they will take to the East will be his mane and pelt to sell in the bazaar. They'll roast the rest of him on shish kebabs and eat him over an open fire one night at camp. They love Cat meat."

Mumm-Ra laughed like mad.

He liked that idea…very much.

TO BE CONTINUED….


	7. Chapter 7

THE PAST IS THE FUTURE….

A ThunderCats Fan Fiction work by Frederick P. Kopetz.

The original copyright to ThunderCats is held by WB Productions © 2012. No infringement is intended; this is a non-profit fan work.

_Chapter Seven_

_"Enemies and Allies"_

- _Sometimes it is said, that a brother can be as close as a brother; or sharper than a Lizard's tooth. Sometimes it is said that an enemy can be an enemy, but the enemy or one's enemy can be a true friend. And we discover such things at the most unexpected of times. – Lord Maronus, Lord of the ThunderCats; 1,000 years ago._

"Cyborgs!" cried Cheetara as she ran back to the group around the Thundertank. "We're under attack by a group of huge ugly cyborgs!"

"Be careful what'cha say about cyborgs, Cheetara," jibed Panthro with a wink. "Remember, you've got one on the team…"

"How many and what does the leader look like?" LionO snapped.

"There's about twenty of them. Two squads. The Leader's about six mirills high, big, has a beard, metal helmet with horns on it and a broken nose," said Cheetara.

"How'd he get the broken nose?" said Bengali.

"I gave it to him," said Cheetara.

"Good work," said LionO, who squeezed Cheetara's hands and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"That was very nice," said Cheetara with a blush.

"You have to get in the Thundertank; get to work on getting the cannon powered up for Panthro, then get out and help form our perimeter, " said LionO.

"Wilco," said Cheetara snappily. WilyKit readied her own new staff for battle as she took LionO's side at the left; Cheetara would take the right flank after about a minute.

LionO pulled out the Sword of Omens and extended it. Then, he said, "Give me sight beyond sight…"

He looked through the eye-holes, and saw a vision of a second squad coming up. He recognized the warriors and their equipment at once_; Lizards!_

But then, he saw a strange vision; The Lizards were attacking the Berserkers!

LionO shut down the Sword, and stood holding it as he said, "Bengali, I just saw something that makes no sense?"

"What is it, Lord?" said Bengali.

"A vision of a Lizard squad behind the cyborgs…"

"Curse those slimy snakes," hissed Bengali.

"But…they were attacking the cyborgs!"

"What?" said Bengali.

Then, enemy fire flew in. Kit and Bengali pushed LionO out of the way as they avoided a huge charge.

Then, two of the Berserkers came at them on foot without warning; almost as if they had teleported in.

LionO slashed with the Sword of Omens, and it gleamed as he slashed it. The Cyborg fell down dead with a cloven helmet and a great mess on the ground as half of his head was taken off. LionO then snarled and held his ground as another Cyborg with a mace ran in, only to impale himself on the Sword of Omens.

Cheetara flew out of the Tank a moment later, literally braining another cyborg who rushed at her and LionO with a huge scimitar. Then, she threw herself on LionO, and covered him with her body as one shot at her with a hand-held pistol.

The shot missed them and rang off the Thundertank. WilyKit leaped up, howled, and used her staff to draw her first blood in the battle, and brain another one of the Berserker cyborgs, who also fell dead with a smashed head. She grabbed his weapon and tossed it to LionO. "Backup!" she said.

"My pleasure," said LionO as he got up from the involuntary clinch he had fallen into with Cheetara. She smiled at him and helped him up. "You're all right? Where are the rest of them?"

"This bunch was their vanguard, I think. The others are still coming," said Panthro. "I see you got another weapon. I want to look at that later."

"Good idea," said LionO. "How far away do you estimate they are?"

"About half a rill…" began Panthro. Enemy fire whizzed in and hit the Thundertank. "Make that a quarter now. Cannon ready!"

"FIRE!" snapped LionO.

The Thundertank's laser cannon went off. Energy roared from it and hit the Berserker position with a nasty blast.

The Berserkers had a huge vehicle of their own, too.

As WilyKat was ready for action, a blast hit his position. He screamed and was thrown, hard, against a tree.

"KAT!" cried Wilykit.

"Keep your eyes on your King!" chided Cheetara.

"You should have done that in some of the other battles we've had!" chided back Kit.

"_Enough_!" said LionO. "Bengali, go check on WilyKit. Here come some more of them!"

Hammerhand himself ran into the battle with more of the Berserkers present.

LionO snarled, and snapped, "Thunder…thunder…Thundercats...HO!" as he swung the Sword of Omens and extended it to its full, ominous length.

Then, he fired a blast of energy from the Sword of Omens at the Berserkers. Four of the Berserkers around Hammerhand were killed, and Hammerhand himself suffered the loss of a cyborg hand.

The Berserker chieftain snarled and picked up his war-hammer with his good hand. He advanced upon LionO, snapping, "I want your pelt as a blanket, you damned Lion!"

"Let's see you try and get it!" LionO responded as he slashed at Hammerhand, who used his war-hammer to try and smash in LionO's face.

LionO evaded the blow, only to watch Hammerhand staggered as a yellow blur came up behind him, and a staff smashed him in the back of his head.

He screamed, only to be transfixed in agony as a spear went through him from behind.

"Cheetara, where did you get that from?" LionO said as he saw Hammerhand falling…but saw, in shock, that his attacker was a Lizard!

The Lizard withdrew his spear. LionO prepared to issue the coup-de-grace to Hammerhand, but the wounded cyborg snarled, "RETREAT!" into a  
wrist communicator on his good hand. He then pushed a button on his belt buckle and vanished.

Cheetara looked in shock at the Lizard officer, who was bowing to LionO!

"Your name is?" said LionO

"Major Graulus, Lord of the Thundercats," said the Lizard. "I was a high Line Officer in Sslythe's army. I've had enough of seeing him kowtow to a bag of _bones_, and, having heard of your campaign to unite the animals against Mumm-Ra, I figured our lot would be better with you than against you. Please accept the service of my Platoon, Lord LionO. "

"If you will be a faithful ally, Major, I accept your offer to join ranks with us," said LionO as Panthro ran over and said, "LionO…I can see that WilyKat is badly wounded, and you're agreeing to join up with a band of Lizards?"

"Panthro, it was my wish all along to begin uniting the animal races of Third Earth against Mumm-Ra and his allies," said LionO.

"And, his cause is a noble one," said Cheetara.

"You're on his side?" said Panthro.

"He is our King," said Cheetara. "And given that Graulus' men seem to be doing a good job mopping up, why not? They can guard our flanks at a distance as we continue our journey."

"How many Lizards do you have at your command, Major?" asked Bengali.

"Sixty," said Major Graulus. "I had a Century, or full unit, but we took casualties when we decided to defect. Let's say that my idea was not very popular with Sslythe and the other Generals. If I ever were to go back to Sslythe's lines, I am now under a death sentence," said the calculating Lizard Officer. "But that doesn't bother me. I have some friends in the far lands, and I'm certain I can be back to a full Century when some other young officers defect and join ranks with me with two more squads."

"How many of them did you get when you defected?" said Panthro with a smile.

"A good amount," snapped back Graulus.

Panthro smiled back at the Major. "You'll have to prove yourself to me, but, remember, LionO is our commander. You follow his dictates, Lizard. How's Kat, Kit?"

WilyKit ran over with tears in her eyes. "He's barely conscious, Panthro…"

"Let's get him into the Thundertank," said Cheetara. "I'll help you carry him, and we'll get out the portable scanners."

"I wonder where we can take him for treatment?" said Bengali.

"There is a small walled Canine city about two days' march to the East of this point," said Graulus. "If your Lord concurs, we can head there. There are healers in that city. I think they can help your young Cat, Lordship."

"Since we intend to head towards the East, that's a fine idea, Graulus. Have your commanders act as a vanguard and flank us," LionO said.

Graulus bowed to LionO and saluted. The Lord of the Thundercats returned the salute as their new Ally took off, shouting orders left and right to the other Lizard troops who had helped them rout Hammerhand's band.

After a while, the new Combined band went onwards.

A DAY LATER…

Many rills to the West, after having encountered a patrol plane, Tygra and Chaniell found themselves passing the gates of the port city of Tineras.

Tineras was about thirty or forty rills to the southwest of the city of Thundera itself. This city-state had always traditionally been part of the Thundercats' realm, under the command of a separate Lord who was loyal to the King.

Located by the shores of the sea at the far head of a small Bay, Tineras had a deep harbor that was always filled with local fishing boats, barges, and heavier ships from throughout the lands used to drop anchor there and deliver their goods.

Tygra soon had an audience with the Master of the City, an older Cougar known as Cormus.

Cormus sat in his seat examining the Warrant that Tygra had laid at his feet.

"This looks authentic," said Cormus.

"It _is_ authentic!" snapped Chaniell.

"_Silence_, Lady Tiger!" snapped one of the guards.

Cormus scrutinized the parchment. "This commission is signed and sealed by young LionO. I recognize the Royal Seal. Welcome to Tineras, Lord Tygra. I subordinate myself and the City to your command. What is thy wish?"

"Build this place into a bastion of technology," said Tygra. "I want the docks dredged, and I want construction to begin on war galleons under sail and under Thundrillium drives."

"I have plans to present to his Lordship," said a tall Lynx.

"Your name?" said Tygra.

"Kyler, head Shipwright," said the Lynx. "These are the plans for an iron-clad war galleon. It will be a small battleship with its guns in turrets rather than laid in gun ports in the sides like in our old galleons and sloops. Its weight will be nine thousand tons, and her length would be two hundred metri. She'd have a Thundrillium-powered jet drive with steam turbine auxiliaries, and she'd be capable of nineteen knots' speed. She'd far outclass anything on the seas. And with her armor, she'd be unsinkable."

"Build it," snapped Tygra.

"What would she be named?" said Chaniell.

"Simple," smiled Tygra. "_The Lord Tygra's Revenge_. Let's see the Mutants fight _that_. I also want air defenses. I want to have three runways built without the walls, here, here, and here. And I want ten Feliners built. Armed."

"In other words, you want to make it damn hard to take this city," said Kyler.

"Yes. I want defenses, and I eventually want offensive armaments, as well," said Tygra.

"The target?" said Cormus.

"It remains to be seen," said Tygra with a dark smile. But, he knew what he was planning to do already.

He had named his warship in being The Lord Tygra's Revenge for a reason.

Someday, when LionO arrived back in Thundera…

…he meant and hoped to bombard the city with it.

…and to take his brother's head. However, for now, Tygra would bide his time.

_LionO, you are a fool,_ he thought. _You are on your quest. Where did you banish me to? Not a port city…it will be a fortress._

TO BE CONTINUED….


	8. Chapter 8

THE PAST IS THE FUTURE….

A ThunderCats Fan Fiction work by Frederick P. Kopetz.

The original copyright to ThunderCats is held by WB Productions © 2012. No infringement is intended; this is a non-profit fan work.

_Chapter Eight_

_"A Tale of Two Cities…And One Pyramid"_

_Third Earth_

_The Far East Islands of N'pangyo_

_The Vicinity of The City of Shinedo_

_In the Depths of the Mountain of Fire_

Lynx-O, the one-time General of Thundera, had long ago been captured by Mumm-Ra and blinded before he had become Claudus' Commanding General before Panthro and Grune had been sent to find the Book of Omens. The events he had described, including his exile to the Endless Steppes, had happened long before he had been made Commander under Claudus.

He had made his way East again after the defeat of his forces in the Siege of Thundera, suspecting that a Treasure that might be useful to the scattered Thundercats rested here.

He had been proven right soon after meeting Lord Osagi again, when he had been entrusted to know the secret of the Hidden Treasure.

As he felt his way with his staff down into the depths of a cavern that led deep into the Mountain of Fire, he thought of the Hidden Treasure, and the secrets of its making many millennia ago.

_The Hidden Treasure,_ he thought, _communicated with me upon my arrival here. I felt it calling to me with my senses soon after arriving in the city. I have the distinct sense that Lord Osagi and his men had just unearthed it; that it had long been lost._

Lynx-O paused as he felt the heat of the distant fires of the Heart of the Mountain beating upon his blinded face as he heard the roar and thrum of the fires of the Mountain, known long ago as Fujiyama, as they rumbled in the very heart of Third Earth deep beneath his paws.

Lynx-O knew where he was. "Open," he commanded, as he heard a magically-controlled rock gate slowly opening.

The heat grew stronger as he bowed and passed into the Antechamber.

The Antechamber was a vast cavern, rounded, with a cleft in its western wall. The cleft was largely hidden by a _Torii_ or Shrine Gate, which surrounded another set of magical doors.

Finally, at the northern gate of the chamber, Lynx-O knew there was a huge grille, made of iron, that guarded a passage that went deep into the Heart of the Mountain into a room known only as The Queen's Chamber.

The Queen's Chamber contained a crack that led into the very caldera of the Mountain itself; a cliff that overlooked a terrifying drop into fire and lava.

The gate that sealed off the entrance to the Queen's Chamber was also magically sealed, by a Power that was whispered to be far older than the greatest and most dreadful works of Mumm-Ra; a Power controllable by very, very few on Third Earth.

Lynx-O, however, was not interested in the Queen's Chamber, but was instead interested in the West Gate. He bowed, and touched the area before the Gate with his staff and murmured a long incantation.

The doors slowly opened, into a chamber that was partly made of polished basalt; a basalt burned into the living rock long ago by the Maker of the Hidden Treasure. The basalt was partially covered with hardened jade tiles placed here much later on by animal stone-wrights, or stonemasons, that Lynx-O had only heard legends of. He knew that the beings were known as the Ancestral Ones. He knew that they were said to be biped animals, feline in shape, whose furry bodies held spirits that were decades, centuries, and even in some cases, millennia old.

"The Ancestral Ones," said Lynx-O to himself in a whisper. "Ancient, powerful; and they were said to be stronger and hardier than even the hardiest Thundercat. Yet, somehow, their memory lives on in us. Some say that after the Wars of Wrath, some of those Cats crossbred with our weaker ancestors, and we are a hybrid of the animals that were our forebears and those terrible spirits, warriors, makers of starships and sorcerers altogether. If any of those dread cats still live, we do not know it. But, the works they preserved will soon be, I prophecy, the booty of a great and terrible war."

Lynx-O felt along the monolith of jade at the center of the chamber. He found what he was seeking with his Sight beyond Sight, his Third Eye, a moment later when he kissed a small pair of iron doors.

A magical lock opened, and two small doors could silently be opened in a small Tabernacle of sorts.

There, in that Tabernacle, rested a gleaming stone of light blue adamant, or diamond.

Lynx-O could not see the Stone with his physical eyes, but he could see it with his spiritual eyes.

It was the Heart Stone; the fourth of the Power Stones used long ago by Mumm-Ra; perverted by him into a weapon that helped him form the Armor of Plunn-Dar.

The Heart Stone was actually older than Mumm-Ra's ancient kingdom.

Lynx-O set his hands on the Stone, and his spiritual eyes opened as he was taken back in time to see images of its making….

_It had a dark origin; being an artifact created in the dying fires of a dwarf star long ago by a dreaded Dark Lord, a being even older than Mumm-Ra himself, yea, a Being Mumm-Ra had once served as a Mere Vassal and Servant. Lynx-O shivered as he heard this mechanical madman's demented laughter as he took a piece of ordinary coal and melted and reformed it in the fires of a Dwarf Star he had harnessed for an unknown end. _

_The Dark Lord who had made the Stone, then known as the Black Seed, had intended to take it and the metal setting he had forged for it, and he had intended to turn the dreaded artifact into a very Ring of Power that he would have wielded to rule…all of the known Cosmos. _

_But, the Black Seed was lost to him, taken off his the chain that held it on his very neck in a flash of light by a Being of Light, a Queen in Exile, who attacked him with a blazing light in a terrible battle filled with magical and psychic powers, humans, machine-beings, and aliens in animal shape. Lynx-O remembered that it was said that She, stabbed him with a sword of crystal that looked like living ice, and then took the Thing off his neck, taking the Black Seed for her own use, intending it for a far different purpose than that intended by its First Maker._

_The Being of Light held the dreaded artifact for some years, finally coming here to the Queen's Chamber to remake it and re-forge it into a far different device. Under Her guidance and genius, it finally became a Ring, with the ugly Black Seed remade into a new artifact of great beauty and awe. The Black Seed was dissolved in the Fire and a New Stone was made from its ashes, not far from here, in the Queen's Chamber itself, in the darkest hour of a terrible war when First Earth was occupied and enslaved by the Dark Lord's legions. The New Stone was thus made by the Queen who wielded it under the Dark Lord's very nose, as a supreme, terrible, and brave act of defiance. _

_A small portion of the desperate bravery of its Maker, who had already died at the Dark Lord's hands and yet returned to life in this War passed into the Stone itself at the moment of its forging. The New Stone was not to be wielded as a weapon to create fear and dread, but with its polarity turned, in an almost angelic act of Power, into a Stone of Heart meant for defense rather than offense, and to inspire the opposite of Dread in others as it was repurposed and remade in the Fires of the Mountain of Fire into a Stone of Blue Diamond, meant to inspire Hope, Valor, and a Power over the hearts of men, women, and animals of all sorts to turn them into a White Army, an Army meant to resist tyranny rather than to create it. Thus was made the Heart Stone, forged and remade by the Queen who turned it into her own Ring, a Ring of Hope and Healing rather than a Ring of Dread. This Ring helped her finally bring down the Dark Lord and free First Earth._

_In later ages, with the Ring that had once held the Stone long-lost long after the Queen who made it had died, Mumm-Ra found the Heart Stone and imperfectly turned it back to evil again, as he imperfectly used its power to create the Armor of Plunn-Dar. Then, as was known even to Lynx-O, King Leo scattered the Stones, and the Heart Stone had come here, where the Tanuki had built this Shrine to house it, not far from the fires of its making. _

_Then, the Tanuki had preserved it, and kept its secret quite Secret…until the time would come when a Lord of the Thundercats would again come forth, from battle, and reclaim it…_

"The time is coming," whispered Lynx-O. "The time will soon be here when you shall be called forth into battle again. Let us pray…that you rest on the finger of the _right_ Thundercat."

Lynx-O bowed, put the Heart Stone back, and began to close the Tabernacle…

…not knowing that he was watched….

The waters of Mumm-Ra's cauldron boiled as he smiled and watched Lynx-O securing the Heart Stone.

"A simple matter, Sslythe," hissed the mummified devil-priest. "If we find Lynx-O and where he is, we find the Heart Stone."

"You think he'll tell us how to find its hiding place?" said Sslythe.

"He will do so…when we find him, if he is properly _persuaded_," said Mumm-Ra. "I can do it myself, or I can leave it to you, General."

"The notion…of torturing a Thundercat to death," said Sslythe. "I like the idea. But we don't know where he's hiding! Do you?"

"Somewhere in the East; that's all I know," said Mumm-Ra. "That artifact is mine. It is not the property of the damned dead Queen who twisted it. She was a damn Queen who barely ruled, anyway. Until she finally died like the damn mortal she was, albeit one with many years, she had to travel the stars being a damned do-gooder," hissed Mumm-Ra. "That Stone was created by M'Lord long ago to rule the universe, and not be the plaything of her people or some righteous Thundercat King. Now that the Lord who trained me long ago is dead, I have taken his place. And…I will not rule only Third Earth, but the entire COSMOS!"

Mumm-Ra slammed the edge of his cauldron and began to laugh like a mad thing as the eyes of the statues in which the Ancient Spirits of Evil dwelt began to glow red.

And, he laughed.

He laughed so hard that his demented laughter chilled even the cold heart of Sslythe.

For the first time, in a while, Sslythe was frightened of Mumm-Ra.

He was utterly frightened…

WilyKit and Cheetara worked together as they watched over the injured WilyKat inside the ThunderTank.

LionO sat in the turret of the Thundertank with Bengali and with Major Graulus, who was in touch with his Lizard troops via comlink.

"So where is this city?" said LionO.

"I was there when I was much younger," said Bengali as he looked out into the night. "It's a very developed city, actually. There are ruins of a long-lost Human city around it," he said as the Thundertank cruised past structures of rusting metal.

"Those were once buildings, I take it, those frameworks?" said LionO.

Graulus nodded. "I was once in a land far across the Great Sea. "

"You mean, there really are continents to the West?" said LionO.

Graulus nodded. "Third Earth's round; and it's a globe. In the dark, while we sleep, there is another land, filled with animals of all other kinds. I was in the Eastern Coast of this land once. There are ruins of cities there with vast metal frameworks like these that make these frameworks seem small. In a few cases, large bits of the Humans' ruined towers still stand in that far-away land."

"Those cities must have huge stores of technology," sighed LionO.

"They gave me the damn creeps," said Graulus. "They had these tunnels where something like wagon trains ran. Some of the ruined metal wagon trains are still down there; with ashes and skulls of dead humans still lying down there. They had strange signs above them, in staircases. I think they were temples, or something. Temples for some weird Human House of Worship, known as the MTA."

"I heard a trace of an ancient Human song that went, "_and the people bowed and prayed; to the neon God they made_" said Bengali. "Tales about Humans give me the creeps; what with sacrificing people to neon gods?"

"Humans must have been a scary bunch," said Graulus.

"I'm not so sure; think of what they left us…their great works…these ruined buildings…." LionO said…

"Their wars; their hatred," said Graulus.

Then, suddenly, lights came on and surrounded the ThunderTank.

A moment later, there was a bizarre howling sound.

And, a group of Dogs in armor were shooting at the ThunderTank.

"What's goin' on?" said Panthro over the comlink.

"The dogs are shooting at us," said LionO.

"You guys get below! We're gonna have to start shootin' back!" said Panthro.

"We may not need to!" said LionO. "Not if I talk to them!"

Then, LionO stood on the tank. "My good, fellow Canids!" he said. "We come here in peace!"

"Yeah!? With a Tank from outta the Ruined lands?" said a Dog Commander over a bullhorn. "Where are you from?"

"I am LionO! Lord of the Thundercats!" snapped LionO.

"You're a pretender!" the Dog roared back. "Lord Claudus is dead! They say his son Tygra was either killed or exiled by some rogue Cat who put his eye out!"

"I am the rightful Lord of the Thundercats!" protested LionO as he drew the Sword of Omens. "Thunder…thunder, THUNDERCATS, HOOOO!" he screamed as he extended the Sword of Omens and lightning came up from it. LionO then said, "I am the rightful Lord of Thundera and the inheritor of the Sword of Omens and the War Stone! I am on a quest for the Heart Stone far to the East! Will you aid me or thwart me? CHOOSE SWIFTLY!"

Cheetara stuck her head out a hatch, smiling at LionO's masterful words. She thought, _He's finally acting like a King. Not a boy. A King. I like that…._

The Dog Commander said. "Lights off, except for that single light on the Tank! Stand down, men!"

The Commander came up to the ThunderTank. He said, "Lord LionO. I am Commander Germasi of the Kievski. The Kievski Clan has held this land for thousands of years, ever since Mumm-Ra destroyed Human Civilization. Our legends state that our ancestors were once fierce, large Canids who served in the armies of ancient Humans who owned this place in ancient times. You are at just the edge of the Endless Steppes. I cannot receive you myself, but our Boyar will be able to receive you," said Germasi.

"Inform your Boyar we have wounded," said LionO. "We are in need of medical care, food, and rest."

"All of which we will give you, Lord of the Thundercats," said Germasi. "Even the cursed Lizard."

"Like you're a pretty lookin' dog yourself!" yelled Graulus.

"What the hell was that, swamp thing?" snapped Germasi as the humanoid Dog who looked like he was descended from a fierce German Shepherd growled and bared his teeth at the Lizard.

"We have no time for this!" snapped LionO.

"That's more apt than you know," said Germasi as he listened to a signal in his comlink.

"Why?" said LionO.

"A bunch of cyborgs are a few _kraski _away according to our sensors," said Germasi.

"My men are flanking us to the sides," said Graulus. "Let my Lizards serve as the Rangers and contact them first."

"Granted," said LionO and Germasi together.

"As for us?" said Panthro as he came out of the ThunderTank with Cheetara.

"Get your tank in the city. We could use it," said Germasi.

"Good idea," said Panthro.

…..TO BE CONTINUED


	9. Chapter 9

THE PAST IS THE FUTURE….

A ThunderCats Fan Fiction work by Frederick P. Kopetz.

The original copyright to ThunderCats is held by WB Productions © 2012. No infringement is intended; this is a non-profit fan work.

_Chapter Nine_

_"The Boyar of Kievski"_

Dawn shone around the Thundercats in the Thundertank as a glorious light illuminated the steppes.

Some distance away, there was a river.

At the river's shore, there was a hill, and on the hill, there was a huge wooden stockade that surrounded the largest city LionO had seen since the plundered city of Thundera.

Kievskigrad, or, simply, Kievski, was the capital of a Canine State that extended for a couple of hundred ells to the East.

Kievski was built on the site of an ancient Human City with a similar name.

LionO glanced around once the ThunderTank entered the city gates.

WilyKit looked at him and said, "Look at that, LionO! All of the writing on the signs is _weird._ The "R's" point the wrong way, it looks like the "N's" are backwards, and these dogs are dressed funny. Some of them even have on funny boots that cover their claws up! I never saw that before."

LionO looked at the Dogs and their odd attire; some had on fur hats, others had on strange felt boots.

"The women have funny scarves on their heads," said Cheetara! "I never heard of that before, either."

"It's interesting," said LionO. "But, we're not here to sightsee. We will probably see battle in the next few hours, or in the next day. And WilyKat needs medical treatment. I'll buy you one of those scarves later, Cheetara."

"Sounds good," she said. "I'll keep that little promise in mind," she said with a ghost of a smile.

LionO looked at her, almost tempted to…give her a peck on the cheek. Just a little kiss.

_…No, it's too soon…_ he thought. _Too soon after she…lost Tygra…too soon after…Pumyra…betrayed me… he thought. Just too soon….besides, we will have other things to concern ourselves with…._

LionO smiled at Cheetara. She smiled back. Somehow, they both knew that they could wait…unless, things became really desperate.

Neither a shadow of growing young love, not a sense of propriety filled Tygra's dark heart after he woke up beside Chaniell the next morning in a decidedly rumpled bed in Tineras.

"You started it," he said to his…mate.

"Well, you didn't say _no_ to it," said the white Tiger as she grinned at her mate. Filled with desire for him, she had stripped soon after a party, and she had dragged him back into bed to re-consummate their dark marriage. "I liked that Messenger that came last night," said Chaniell.

"That man was a messenger from the Mutants," said Tygra. "I'm surprised they let him stay."

"That's because we need to listen to him, Lord," said Chaniell.

"_Listen to a Mutant_?" snarled Tygra.

Chaniell nodded. "This is all technically occupied territory. The Messenger said that Mumm-Ra and the Coalition would negotiate with a Lord of the Thundercats who would be more…willing to work with him."

Tygra's eyebrows went up. "Work with Mumm-Ra?"

"Why not?" purred Chaniell. "Not a permanent alliance, mind you. One that will allow us to rebuild this city, and then to, if we serve according to Mumm-Ra's satisfaction, we will then eventually have Thundera restored to us. To a new Government; a government with you as King, and myself…as Queen. And we just have to do Mumm-Ra two little favors…."

"And what are these…favors?" said Tygra.

"One; at just the right point in their quest, attack LionO and his band, and give Mumm-Ra LionO's head and pelt. Two; give over to HIM, the Sword of Omens, to be returned, in trust, to you."

"If we sign an alliance…?" said Tygra, as he lay back in bed, in just his fur, wondering how Chaniell had so besotted him.

"If we sign an alliance," said Chaniell. "We will have all we want, and can continue building up our forces…to join…the Coalition. We'll get them to unite the animals, all right, just like your stupid brother wanted. Except, with Mumm-Ra's help…we will do it…under the boot of Thundera!"

"And the work on the ship and the planes continues?" said Tygra.

Chaniell nodded.

And she kissed him again.

"I think," said Tygra. "I think I'm going to like…being King…"

Chaniell smiled at him and lay back on Tygra's chest.

They both just laughed.

First matters were first when the ThunderTank arrived in Kievski.

A number of the local Dogs took a moaning WilyKat off on a stretcher to a small hospital complex in the city. LionO and Cheetara were relieved to see an elderly Cougar there as the Doctor.

"My name is Doctor Panremus," said the old Cougar. "My guess is that the cub here has suffered a brain injury.

"Yes, he was hit in the head," said WilyKit. "Is he going to be all right?"

"It may be touch and go for a few days," said Panremus as he looked over the young cub, who now twitched and moaned in his coma, undressed in his bed. "I may have to operate."

"Operate?" said WilyKit. "On my brother?"

"It won't be that bad, will it?" said Cheetara.

The Doctor said, "I will have to open his head here and just insert a small tube to take the pressure off his head. If we are able to drain some of the blood and cerebrospinal fluid, my guess is that he will wake up, and, because of his youth, he will, I hope, have all of his faculties back. A few more hours, and you would not have been able to save him. I would eventually have him scanned, at some point, by a more advanced healer; preferably a doctor who has technology and a scanner. A few such old-school doctors still exist, but they are getting harder to find."

"Technology," said LionO. "It has its uses."

"I don't have that sort of technology here, Lord LionO," said Doctor Panremus. "But, I will be able to do for him with what I do have…"

Then, they heard a horn blowing in the distance.

"What's that?" said Cheetara.

"The horn for the Boyar's Council," said Panremus. "Come with me. I know that you will be wanted, LionO. The nurses here will look after the cub while I am away."

LionO looked at Cheetara, who nodded. "Kit," said Cheetara. "Stay here with your brother. We'll be going before the Council with Panthro, Bengali, Major Graulus, and Commander Germasi. They're going to be making some hard decisions."

"Yeah, left out again," she sighed. "But, at least I can stay with Kat. I hope he gets better," she said with a hitch in her voice. "You'll see to it, LionO?"

"Kat, you have my word," said LionO.

A few minutes later, they were in a wooden, Onion-domed palace, inside which there was a meeting room.

A very old Dog who looked vaguely related to Commander Germasi sat with a strange rectangular headdress at the head of a round table beneath an ornate canopy. Other dogs, who were commanders of other units, as well as men whom LionO guessed were Priests in the dogs' faith, sat around the table watching as most of the Thundercats followed Germasi's lead and bowed to the elderly Dog leader.

The Boyar then stood, and banged down on a small table with a gavel on a stone block. "Men and women of the Council of Kievski, Royal Thundercats, and our loyal Lizard friend, I am Boyar Pitor. I have ruled this city for over thirty years, and we once sent ambassadors to Thundera. The Ambassadors, to my understanding, were slain when the Mutants invaded that city?"

"They were, Lord," said LionO. "I recall seeing Dogs like your people among the dead. I am so sorry."

"My interest is in how you come here with a band of Lizards. Lizard, would you explain yourself?' said the Boyar.

"Yes," said Graulus. "I defected from the Lizard Ranks since I no longer believe in them, Mumm-Ra, or the ideals of General Sslythe. I have come into LionO's service, and have already fought at his side. I bring fifty-eight surviving Lizards to help defend your city against the oncoming attack. I fought a cyborg group of Berserkers who are in the service of Mumm-Ra for various reasons. They will not only be back…"

"Lord, my scouts already engaged their vanguard," said Germasi. "The scouts informed me that they took ten casualties against twenty of those Berserkers, and a small unit of ten Lizards, ten Jackals, and ten Monkian beings. The signs say that more enemies are on the way, Lord."

"How many swords can you bring, LionO?' said Pitor.

"My own sword; the Sword of Omens," said LionO.

"I have seen it in action; he speaks truth," said Germasi.

"I also bring my Cleric Cheetara and an Entered Apprentice Cleric WilyKit. She has access to a small unit of twenty others."

"How?" said one of the other Boyars.

"Don't ask how; just assume she has access," said Bengali, knowing that just a few hours ago, Kit had secured twelve Northern Clan Tigers and eight other stray Thunderians that they had picked up in their travels in the Forever Bag.

"We also have General Panthro and Lord Bengali with us, with our armed ThunderTank," said LionO. "With our alliance with Major Graulus, we bring close to an additional Century to defend your city."

"Would these Cyborgs and Mutants have attacked us had these newcomers not shown up?" snapped an old Priest. "Boyar Pitor, banish these mountebanks to the wilderness and let them have their fight out…"

"You're wrong, Nikolai!" shouted Germasi. "My Scout Commander Leftenant Hera captured a Berserker. Under some…persuasion, he informed us that Mumm-Ra meant to invade our city at any instance."

"MUMM-RA?" mumbled the Council as Boyar Pitor slammed his gavel for order.

"Let us settle this once and for all," said LionO. "I have an infallible means of solving this debate once and for all!" he snapped.

"What is it?" said Pitor.

LionO whipped out the Sword of Omens.

Some of the guardsmen in the room drew swords, but then, LionO genuflected to the canopy under which Pitor sat and put up the Sword in salute. "Sword of Omens!" he intoned. "Grant me Sight Beyond Sight!"

LionO's eyes widened, and he began to concentrate.

He saw a psychic image of Mumm-Ra addressing three Centuries of troops before his Black Pyramid. There was a Lizard Century led by Sslythe, a Monkian Century led by Addicus, and a Jackal Century led by Kaynar. They all had Mutant Skycutters and other such tanks,

Mumm-Ra was stating, "We attack soon! We will have two objectives; wiping out the Dog City that has long refused me access to the Dnieper River, and wiping out the Thundercats, who have just come up there like so much damned flotsam! Our job will be to finish the whole group of them, and leave the few dog survivors there in slavery so that they can help find me the Heart Stone, which I am sure is buried there!"

LionO had seen enough. He stowed away the Sword of Omens, and he said, "I have seen irrefutable evidence that an invasion force is on its way here. Whatever our feelings are about each other, we face a common enemy. What is your decision, Boyar?"

Boyar Pitor spoke with a few members of his Council for a moment. Then, he said, "Lord of the Thundercats, we have an alliance! Commanders Germasi, Ivanov, and Hillarda, organize your troops in the field as appropriate. Castellan Viski, prepare the Home Guard and the inner defenses. Germasi, you will be the field commander. Discuss your strategy with Lord LionO, his men and women, and Major Graulus, and sound the Great Horn! A mobilization will begin; see to it the women and children are evacuated down to the caverns beneath our Kremlin, or Fortress, for you outsiders! This is our decision! See to it!"

"Yes, Lord!" said Germasi.

TO BE CONTINUED


	10. Chapter 10

THE PAST IS THE FUTURE….

A ThunderCats Fan Fiction work by Frederick P. Kopetz.

The original copyright to ThunderCats is held by WB Productions © 2012. No infringement is intended; this is a non-profit fan work.

**_Chapter Ten_**

**_"A Battle Royal"_**

Third Earth itself was not the only place in the Sol System where there was conflict.

The space around the Sol System was currently in dispute, claimed by both the Galactic Federation, which was now controlled from an ancient world just beyond the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy, and a New Galactic Empire which was said to be reforming deeper in the Galactic Center.

The Federation and the New Empire currently had an uneasy truce of sorts going, and in areas only lightly patrolled by their forces, free trade, as well as its handmaiden, piracy, were both flourishing.

Near Pluto, a small private vessel, hauling both cargo and passengers, was in distress. It was hauling a charter towards Titan, which was currently the only outpost of known Galactic Civilization left here in the Sol System, which had been devastated some centuries ago by Mumm-Ra.

"Sol System Titan Outpost, please respond! This is Captain Villarni! We are on a mission of peace towards Leptilia, bound for a stop at Titan! Titan Patrol Forces, respond!"

_"Negative….contact….Captain….detected Berthold Radiation 1200 space kilometers from Pluto…difficult to respond…navigation…difficult!"_

"What do you mean, it's DIFFICULT?" said Captain Villarni as he banged his hands on a console on his ship. "We are under attack!"

And, indeed, they were under attack.

Villarni's ship, the _Hargis_, was rather smallish, maybe one hundred and twenty-five meters in length.

Chasing it was a pirate vessel. The pirate ship was a vessel that they had just escaped from a few days ago near Planet Abraxas.

The pirate ship, about two hundred and twenty meters in length, was known as the _Vertus_, and she was under the command of a Mercenary and Pirate Captain known as Captain Shinar.

Shinar was a furry alien creature of the Gralski Race, who also looked somewhat Canid, and he wore a purple jumpsuit, boots, and a monocle. He opened up a channel to the _Hargis_ and said, in a sharp, pronounced accent, "Really, Villarni! Your continuing to fight for your rights is a gesture vhich is downright pathetic and NICHT Volkisch! All I vant, under rights of salvage, since your ship vas damaged by me in fair battle, is your cargo and passengers. Your crew gets to live! Or do I have to raise the red flag and stop showing you any sort of quarter, Captain?"

"I have informed you Shinar! We are on a mission of peace to Leptilia!" said Villarni. "And you have learned that I am NOT defenseless!"

"A few small pulse laser mounts, and you say you are NOT defenseless?" snapped Shinar. "Danek! Lock our main guns 1200 meters in front of zat ship; ve fire across zer bow now, and…"

"Main guns locked on," said another pirate of Shinar's race as status boards in the _Vertus_ went green.

"Open fire! Here is your warning shot, SCUM! I EXPECT TO HEAR YOUR SURRENDER, NEXT!" said Shinar as he nodded.

The _Vertus_ opened fire on the _Hargis_ a moment later.

The greenish fire from the pirate ship just missed the smaller vessel.

Then, a moment later, as Shinar began to laugh, Danek sat up transfixed as he watched his sensors. "CAPTAIN! Large object to our stern; range, three thousand! She just appeared from outta nowhere! It's covered with Berthold Radiation…in fact, it's stinking with it! It's got damage o' some kind, but it's coming behind us to intercept!"

"VAT?" yelled Shinar.

Then, a moment later, six titanic beams of energy blasted past the _Vertus_; one of them raked the pirate ship's hull as Shinar's crew panicked.

"Captain!" said another one of Shinar's men. "Sensors are picking up a leaking, unstable tachyonic drive from that vessel! Its length is two hundred and seventy-five meters! Mass, about a hundred thousand kilograms! It's a bloody Capital Ship!"

"Worse!" said Danek. "It's a Ghost Ship! It's the dread Ghost ship we've heard about! It looks like a lost Naval Ship and it's bearing down on us! Visual!"

Shinar looked at the visual of the ship as it came up. It was a huge, sleek vessel, mostly steel-grey in color, with a large, prominent bridge tower like an ancient battleship, but sleek and trimmed in yellow and chrome. It had four huge gun turrets that held impressive large energy cannons, many smaller gun mounts, and it bristled with missile tubes, ports, and sensor and radio masts all over the ship, her main engine port at the stern, and her four auxiliary engine ports. The huge vessel was smoking from damage near its stern. At its bow, it had two huge ports, lined in some red-orange material that glowed slightly with suppressed energy. Shinar then said, "No…it's not **the** Ghost Ship! The Legends say the Ghost Ship looks like an old ocean-going vessel turned into a space warship and she is supposed to be dark blue on top and red at the bottom. This is a more modern space warship with two huge red-orange ports at the bow and lots of gun turrets," said Shinar. "She's something of a similar class, but she's definitely a space battleship!"

"Message from the ship, coming in to us in code in bits!" said another member of Shinar's bridge crew. "I quote, sir, '…why don't you pick on someone your own size, pirates? This is the ESS _North Carolina_! Why isn't Earth answering our hails? Stand down and help us render aid to that smaller ship, or you'll get much worse than MY shot across your bow! OVER! RESPOND!' Our answer, sir?"

"Play nice, but lead them to Third Earth. Don't let them get near Titan to request reinforcements," said Shinar. "If the Federation gets me…"

"We know, sir. We'll try to play nice and get them to go towards Third Earth…"

"Nice," said Shinar. "Stand down for now from our attack upon the _Hargis_. Let Mumm-Ra have them! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! A disabled ship that big will bring me lots of exchange from Mumm-Ra if I sell him the salvage rights next time I see him! Wonderful! Just Wonderful! " snapped Shinar.

Mobilization was well under way in and around Kievski as the sun began to set in the Dog City.

Graulus' and Germasi's scouts reported that the enemy army was coming from the northwest, just beyond the ancient ruined structures that the ThunderTank had come through.

Cheetara was now running in the night as she ran towards the enemy forces as a scout to bring back her own report to LionO.

LionO had not wanted her to go, but she had insisted. She had said, "LionO, I am again your sworn Cleric, at your side in battle, but doing what I can to defend you in battle has not started. I have my speed, and I can run far ahead of anyone, get a picture of the enemy forces, and run back before I am detected. It's logical that I go out as our own vanguard."

LionO had agreed to that, but Cheetara had noticed that he had insisted on giving her a quick hug before she ran off. She returned the hug, nodded, and took off.

She was running now, running fast towards the enemy forces.

"Two centuries…no, make that three….Kaynar is on the right flank with Hammerhand, damn him!"

Cheetara continued to run, with the dirt of the fields around Kievski feeling good under her toes as she ran. She avoided some laser fire by pole-vaulting at high speed over some rocks with her staff.

A few Jackals tried to grab her, but Cheetara held no quarter and she used her staff to literally brain them at high speed as they approach; the feel of their skulls breaking open under her staff was gruesome but satisfying.

Then, her heart skipped a few beats as she beheld and sensed a darkness in the central tank at the center of the enemy ranks.

"Mumm-Ra," she hissed to herself as she felt his cold and darkness. "This confirms LionO's vision in the Sword…he's personally leading this force!"

Cheetara stopped, taking cover behind some rocks as she weighed in her mind as to whether she should or should not try to assassinate him at close range in a high-speed charge that might mean the death of her, but would assure victory.

Cheetara bared her fangs and readied herself to spring, but she stopped when she felt…

…something that had to be from deep space touching the battlefield.

Mumm-Ra was shouting orders at Sslythe when he stopped in mid-sentence as he looked up at the sky, his laughter quailing as he suddenly sensed and felt another spiritual Power, as strong as his own, momentarily touching his spirit.

"There is something out there, Sslythe," he suddenly murmured. "A Presence…that I have not felt, ever since…"

"Since when, Lord?" said Sslythe.

"Since a great battle long ago, since when my Lord was killed. He was brought down by a Power far greater than mine…a Power that died long ago…yet it lives…what….what is it?"

Far away, out in space beyond Neptune, the mind that commanded the _North Carolina_ also felt Mumm-Ra. Hers was a mind that was there out of space, out of time. This was neither her proper time nor her place, and the young middle-aged Captain of the vessel which had come forward in time over twelve thousand years, a woman who was blessed (or cursed?) a few years after her most famous two cruises with psychic gifts not of her asking sensed Mumm-Ra and her teeth gritted, in an expression of rage matching that of her famous husband, who was still a great hero whose legend still lived on in this time, a legend that still resounded dimly, even in these days…a legend that was again evoked when one said only one word; which was_….Yamato_.

The woman did not know it yet, but she had come forward into a time where she had literally become something like a demi-goddess as a Guardian after her body had died.

Her dark brown eyes, which had passed into legend in this time, narrowed under the brim of her Captain's hat as her Flight Group Leader looked at her. "Yes, Mister Wakefield?" she said.

"Skipper, it's pretty obvious that we've come forward in time. Mister Bando tells us that we've come through an unnatural warp…"

"…yes, a wormhole that will close in nine weeks, as he predicts, and a warp that I don't dare to do a hundred and eighty-degree turn and try to traverse back until the last day or two it will be open, so that its impending collapse will help push us back precisely to August 2214. Because of the laws of physics, Wakefield, we're going to be here for nine weeks in this strange time, probably…about fourteen thousand something AD. Nine weeks for us, maybe a minute or two at the other end due to time dilation. Damn Bolar Black Hole tech! That was a dirty trick, hitting us as we were making a warp out from that last battle where that Commodore hit us after we made a truce with that other commander after we beat him. I'll bet the others are making them pay for it…"

"That pirate ship, ma'am," said Commander Fujiko Miyazaki, the young woman who was the _North Carolina's_ navigator-pilot.

"We're going to keep on tracking them," said the Captain of the _North Carolina_. "They want us to go towards their Earth, and I'm going there. I've decided it already."

"Why, ma'am?" said Miyazaki in dismay.

"Because she's sensing the same things that I am," said Lieutenant Commander Sasha Wakefield.

"You've got that right," said the Captain. "I'm sensing a presence…something I have not felt, since…a battle I was involved in in 2209 that's still classified."

"What sort of battle?" said Miyazaki.

"It was a Black Op," said the Captain of the _North Carolina_ as she thought back in her mind to when she had encountered this…mummy…before…over five years ago, on Lord Ekogaru's ship.

Then, she turned her mind to Third Earth, and said, "There's others there. Miss Miyazaki. Take us on course towards Earth after we escort that small ship to a safe haven near Titan."

"Aye, aye…Captain Wildstar," said Miyazaki as she saluted her Skipper.

Cheetara let her head clear, and then, while Mumm-Ra stood in shock, she ran back towards her own ranks, barely noticed by the enemy as she sped back towards Kievski.

Back in Kievski, a few minutes later, Cheetara saluted the guards and said, "Take me directly to Lord LionO. I've scouted out their ranks, caused some damage, and confirmed my King's vision. There is something very interesting going on in deep space, as well.

"So," said Panthro as they met around a table in Boyar Pitor's Palace. "Let's get this straight, Cheetara. Mumm-Ra's out there?"

"Yes, he is," said Cheetara. "He's in personal command."

"If I can capture or kill him," LionO said, "We can regain the Tech Stone from him. With that Stone, I would have the power over Technology he has."

"Yeah; we would have had it back at Avista," said Panthro. "Except for Pumyra."

LionO gritted his teeth as Cheetara reported, "I've seen her there, too. I sense she and I are going to meet again."

"That…sounds like trouble," said WilyKit.

"And, on top of all this, I have sensed that there has been a battle out in space, near Third Earth," said Cheetara.

"There's still activity around Third Earth, deep in space?" said Pitor.

Cheetara nodded. "There are several ships that have taken an interest in Third Earth. I used my senses and saw a pirate vessel, a small freighter from the Federation…"

"The Federation still exists?" said Panthro "I thought it was long-dead."

LionO shut his eyes. He said, "I have the distinct sense that this may be the first battle of a much wider war."

"You may be right," said Pitor as the others nodded.

**THREE HOURS LATER….**

The War Council was over.

LionO was checking on WilyKit, who had just been operated on, before going out to the battlefront.

Doctor Panremus looked at the other Thundercats and at WilyKit's bandaged head. "I've operated and inserted a drain. The pressure is coming off; but now, it's a matter of 'wait and see' to see how, or if… he recovers.

"How? If" said WilyKit.

"His brain has received some major damage," said Doctor Panremus. "I'm not sure when the damage to his brain will heal. I've done what I can do. Now…all we can do…is wait."

"And leave him in the hands of the Reverend Ones?" said Cheetara.

Doctor Panremus nodded.

At that, WilyKit held Cheetara and began to cry harder than ever. "I want vengeance! Do you hear me? I WANT VENGEANCE for those people who did this to my brother!"

"Vengeance," said LionO. "Vengeance, we will have."

And, at that, he gritted his teeth.

Far away, to the West, Tygra, Chaniell, and the people of Tineras were having their own problems.

Tygra was flying the Feliner, surrounded by two wingmen known as Aklen and Tallis. Both of them were Northern Clan Tigers, who were ostensibly loyal to Bengali.

"Where are the radar blips that you state you picked up?" said Master Cormus over Tygra's comlink.

Tygra grinned and said, "The radar's always right. Like me. We'll find them!"

"Tygra!" snapped Aklen. "They just found US!"

Tygra looked up.

There were two Mutant Sky-Cutters. Sslythe was flying one of them, and Kaynar was flying the other.

The third plane that was attacking them was The Storm Charger itself.

In the Storm Charger, laughing like mad, was Mumm-Ra. He was now in his Ever-Living Form, and he was filled with wrath.

"Good day, Thundercat!" said Mumm-Ra. "It's a bad day for you, isn't it?"

"Why do you dare attack our city, Mumm-Ra?" snapped Tygra. "I had heard…"

"What have you heard, you Thundercat _outcast_?" hissed Mumm-Ra with utter contempt in his voice.

"I heard you wanted to cut some kind of deal, Mumm-Ra," hissed Tygra. "Something that would protect us…"

"Yet allow you to finish LionO?" hissed Mumm-Ra. "Yes. I know that offer well."

"Which one of the Mutants made it? Lady Chaniell says there was a Messenger."

"Yes, Tygra? A Cat known as Pavren? Pavren…the Puma of Thundera…"

"I thought he was dead," said Tygra.

"He was," said Mumm-Ra. "I'm going to tell you a secret, Tygra. When I want to walk amongst you unmarked, I take the form of Pavren."

"So, Chaniell…?"

"Was speaking directly to ME," hissed Mumm-Ra. "Do we have a deal, Tiger? Or do I shoot you out of the sky like the one-eyed piece of sewer trash that you are?"

Tygra hissed, and bared his teeth. "Do you promise me I will be King?"

"Yes, but my King, Tygra."

"Mumm-Ra, you and I have an understanding."

"Very good. I was hoping we would," hissed Mumm-Ra as he grinned. "I will help you build your realm. Kaynar, Sslythe, break off the attack. We have an understanding with the Lord of Tineras. Soon…soon to be the Lord of the Thundercats."

Kaynar and Sslythe just began to laugh at that.

When Tygra landed, the other two Tigers were shocked to see that the attack had ended, and even more shocked to see that Tygra let Mumm-Ra's ship and the Mutant Commanders' ships land peacefully at the airfield in Tineras.

They were shocked even more when Mumm-Ra came out of his ship in his Mummy form, and shook hands with Tygra. The Tigers saw Tygra talking with their enemy as if he was an old friend. Tygra then opened his comlink and said, "Master Cormus?"

"Yes," said Cormus coldly.

"I am now Lord of this City, and that should NEVER be questioned!" snapped Tygra. "You are my third in command after the Lady Chaniell. I have cut a deal—with the Coalition. This city is now under Mumm-Ra's protection."

"I'm delighted," said Chaniell as she slapped Cormus aside and took the com-link herself. "Good day…is Pavren there?"

Mumm-Ra nodded and changed form. "Yes. Pavren the Puma is here. You will have quite a nice surprise later, my dear."

"Mmmmmm," said Chaniell. "If I didn't love Tygra, I'd consider a roll in the hay with you…"

Pavren and Chaniell laughed as Tygra seethed, thinking, _Mumm-Ra, get this straight. She is mine…._

_I heard that,_ Mumm-Ra's voice hissed in Tygra's mind. _Just a bit of teasing…_

_I hope so…_thought Tygra.

_You mean, I hope so, My Lord?_ Mumm-Ra hissed back in his mind. _Remember who you speak to, Tygra. And remember you are not indispensable. None of my underlings are. Are we clear?_

Tygra just nodded.

"This way," said Pavren. "I know this city better than you Cats think."

"Damn him," muttered Aklen.

"I wish Bengali was here. Or…LionO," whispered Tallis.

"You and me both," whispered Aklen.

**FOUR HOURS LATER….**

In the night, near Kievski, it was dark and quiet.

LionO and the other commanders were in position. LionO was in command from the rear, from the stockade on top of the city.

He had a comlink that connected him to Graulus, Panthro, Germasi and Bengali.

"We're in position, Lord," said Germasi. "You have the high ground to use the Sword from where you are. The strategy is to lure the ground troops towards the city."

"I will blast them from one flank," said Panthro, who had a full load of missiles and weapons in his ThunderTank.

"I've got the other," said Bengali, who was in a tank similar to the ThunderTank used by the people of Kievski.

"My Century will assist Germasi and his dogs in luring the enemy into your sights, LionO," said Graulus. "Then, we will fall off to each flank to meet up with the others, giving you free play with the Sword. We will then box in any survivors and we will all act to crush them."

"I'm at the gates below you," said WilyKit, who was alone on her hoverboard with the Forever Bag.

"Let's take our positions!" snapped LionO.

The enemy began their onslaught less than an hour later.

Mutant star-shells illuminated the area around the city as artillery fire began to slam into the Dog positions.

Germasi's group drew first blood, using long-range laser rifles to shoot at the Mutants.

LionO heard screams as Graulus' group engaged a group of Lizards and Apes. The battle of Lizard against Lizard was bloody, grotesque, and soon, Sslythe was signaling a retreat as his Lizards were hit from two sides by Graulus.

"We're falling back, Lord!" said Sslythe into a comm-unit.

"WHY?" yelled Mumm-Ra.

"My men received coded orders on the Net to come this way! FROM GRAULUS! That Lizard led us to our doom, curse him!"

"Did you ever change your internal codes, fool?" snapped Mumm-Ra.

"No," said Sslythe.

"You should have changed your ident codes when he defected, you lamebrain!" roared Mumm-Ra. "You…"

Then, they heard LionO's roar of "HOOOOOOO!" in the distance.

The Sword of Omens let loose with its energy flare a moment later as LionO blasted the Mutant positions from the high ground on the city wall.

Most of Kaynar's squads were wiped out. In fact, the Jackal General himself lay on the ground, screaming, because he had actually lost an arm to LionO's flame.

"Sslythe, I am not depending upon you any longer!" roared Mumm-Ra as he let the wind blow his tattered robes and Mummy bandages about his emaciated form.

Pumyra ran up, and she stood smiling as Mumm-Ra stood up on a rock. "I have had enough of this and need to take the battle to that accursed Lion personally!" He looked up at the skies and intoned, "ANCIENT SPIRITS OF EVIL! TRANSFORM THIS DECAYED FORM INTO MUMM-RA, The EVER-LIVING!"

Mumm-Ra screamed as the transformation happened, and his body twisted and mutated into his Ever-Living Form!"

"Pumyra," he hissed at the Puma woman he had brought back from death and possessed. "Come with me. We have a certain Lion to deal with…and now!" At that, Mumm-Ra drew the Sword of Plunn-Dar and said, "Pumyra, let's get to it!"

"Yes," she hissed, with an evil grin.

WilyKit had just unleashed the Northern Clan Tigers and the eight stray Thunderians she had secreted in the Forever Bag. A battle was going on at the Gate of Kievski as Hammerhand and Bersekers had fought their way through to the Gate.

Panthro drove the ThunderTank around and unleashed some missiles at the Berserkers as the Northern Clan Tigers caught some of the others with whips and some used swords to run them through.

LionO fought on, personally engaging Hammerhand on the city wall, with the aid of Cheetara, who ran around him in the confined space and smashed his helmeted head.

"YOU BITCH!" he said, gasping as LionO ran him through.

Grievously wounded, the Berserker leader used his teleport belt to return to the rear.

"How late is it, Cheetara?" said LionO.

"About close to the sunrise by my senses," said Cheetara, who snarled and held up her staff when she saw a shadow coming over the city walls.

"What is it?" hissed LionO. He held up the Sword of Omens and snarled as…

…Finally, in the embers of the night, maybe twenty-four hours after they had arrived in Kievski, a form drifted from the air like a vile bat, on vile wings.

LionO finally stood and confronted the monster. No words were necessary as he held the Sword of Omens out before the beast. "Mumm-Ra. So, you've finally found us!"

"Finally, LionO. You ran nice and far this time, over a thousand rills, but didn't you think I would eventually find you and your scrawny, mangy band, Thundercat?" said the demon as he stood towering over LionO.

"You have no right to be here, Mumm-Ra. These people are peaceful!"

"_Peaceful?_ They shot at me, the Lord of Third Earth! They cost my General Sslythe an arm as he was trying to retreat! Damn your ideas of peaceful, you idiot!"

"And you're going to try and confront me?" said LionO.

"I have no need to do so, LionO. I have _servants_!" roared Mumm-Ra.

"What sort of servants?" snarled Cheetara as she ran up beside her Lord and squeezed his free hand. LionO squeezed back and nodded.

"Servants like me?" said Pumyra as she leapt on LionO from nowhere. "Servants who will take your Sword?"

Pumyra's attack with an electrical whip staggered LionO. Somehow, even after all they had been through, he was not expecting the cat he had once loved to try and kill him.

LionO struggled free, as Cheetara ran around the three combatants like a blur. She had spotted a support beam near where Mumm-Ra was standing. She flashed around and struck it a glancing blow with her staff.

Mumm-Ra staggered and fell off the edge of the stockade as part of it began to collapse.

But, Pumyra smiled and found a piece of broken wood.

Before LionO could react….

…Pumyra ran him through with the piece of wood.

LionO screamed as he stood there, impaled.

Mumm-Ra laughed as he drew the Sword of Plunn-Dar.

"And, now, LionO," hissed the Undead Devil Priest. "For…the…Kill!"

He raised the Sword, and murmured an incantation.

Nothing happened.

"What?" he roared, suddenly feeling, at long range, another mighty psychic power in the distance. "The Skies!" he hissed. "An interloper, thinking that they can offer you aid by attacking me! No matter! You're dying, anyway!"

"Yes," hissed Pumyra as she kicked LionO in the face as he tried to pick up the Sword of Omens. "He's losing blood quickly, and too weak to pick it up! Do you like that, dear?" she hissed at Cheetara.

"Get out of here, BITCH!" hissed Cheetara at Pumyra, who threw back her head and laughed. Mumm-Ra's laughter could also be heard as he stood, and wheeled back up, on his wings, to confront LionO as he collapsed…into Cheetara's arms.

"Cheetara," he gasped.

"Kneel down, LionO," she said gently as tears ran down her cheeks. "I have the Sword. I'll help you pick it up…" she said as a vision came to her….

_The vision was clear, yet remote, as if she was watching that little clip from that lost Human device known as a "computer". _

_Cheetara saw a tall man with blue skin and blond hair confronting a smaller man clad in white in a room filled with fire and smoke. No, it was not just a room…it was the bridge of an ancient starship. _

_The smaller man had wild brown hair, a white uniform, and he was bleeding severely from an arm._

_He was holding a weapon on the taller man, but he staggered and fell._

_The weapon fell from his hand._

_A woman in gold ran in from nowhere, screaming words Cheetara did not recognize. _

_Whoever she was…she looked like a young Goddess in dirty gold tights and boots…until Cheetara realized that the woman looked much like one of the Reverend Spirits of Good herself!_

_The woman ran in, guarded the man with her body, and she took up the man's fallen weapon, (***the man is her commander, her lover, Cheetara realized in a flash***) and pointed it right at the tall blue tyrant._

_A flash of an explosion illuminated her face in sharp relief as the blue man stood stunned._

_Then, the woman looked right at Cheetara and snapped at her, "Follow my example, Cheetah! PICK UP THE SWORD! YOU CAN STOP THEM!_

Then, the vision faded.

Cheetara knew what she had to do.

She kissed LionO, and with a sudden resolve, she picked up the Sword of Omens in her trembling hands.

Immediately, the red War Stone in the hilt changed color slightly to a sort of flaming violet as the power of the Sword merged with Cheetara's spirit for a moment as Pumyra grinned at her.

Cheetara held LionO's hand and said, "Just grasp my arm…my darling. I'll do the rest."

"D…darling?" said LionO.

Cheetara smiled and nodded. Her King was dying and she knew it. She owed him this much…this final chance at redemption and honesty.

"Darling," said Cheetara. "Unlike her, LionO, I LOVE YOU!" she said.

Then, snarling at Mumm-Ra, she held up the Sword. "EAT THIS, DEAD THING!" she screamed.

And, red fire blasted from the Sword of Omens.

The fire went right through Pumyra first.

She screamed as she was caught in the energy, writhing as she began to burn from the inside.

The Puma snarled, "I HATE YOU ALL!" as the fire overtook her, and her flesh burned.

A moment later, nothing remained of Pumyra except a ragged, charred skeleton, clad in the burning remnants of her torn dress.

The remains of Pumyra crashed to the earth, where they lay there, smoking.

The remaining energy hit Mumm-Ra in the chest, throwing him back with a scream as he fell back towards the enemy lines.

Then, he, too crashed to Earth, shrinking back down into his Mummy form, more dead than alive.  
He looked at Addicus. "You're still intact, Ape! Good!"

"Yes, Lord. Are you?"

"Ready my Storm Charger," he hissed. "This battle is not over yet! I'm going to strafe the spot where that damned Lord of the Thundercats cowers, and I will FINISH HIM! Then, I will have the Sword at Last!"

"Yes, Lord," said Addicus as he helped Mumm-Ra walk to the Storm Charger.

LionO, still in pain from his wound, looked up as Cheetara helped him hold his head up.

Mutant planes in dark red, along with steel-grey fighter planes from the _Vertus_ were wheeling about the city, strafing Lizard troops from Graulus' Century, along with some of the Dog troopers.

Some of them were bombing the city, too. Fires, screaming, carnage, and the wails of Dog women parted suddenly from their husbands or children by the bombing raid came to their ears, and LionO said, "Cheetara, look at this. This is like the fall of Thundera all over again. Are we going to lose this battle?"

"No," said Cheetara. "LionO, just hang on. I am watching over you, and you have to have faith. I told you that I was advised in that vision we would be delivered."

"By whom?" said LionO as he looked up and saw some green dots in the air as more planes came. ** Just more mutants ** he thought. ** It's hopeless **

"By a source quite unexpected," said Cheetara. She looked up at the green dots, followed by some blue dots. Those dots soon focused in on the planes from the Vertus and from the Mutants.

Cheetara bowed her head; but then she smiled as she saw that the newcomers in the air were not joining up with their enemies.

They were attacking them!

Cheetara smiled as she took a count of the newcomers. "By the Reverend Spirits of good…there's sixty new fighter planes…on our side!"

"How can you tell they're on our side?"

"Some of the green planes…I've never seen a design like this before…are bombing the Mutant ranks! And I recognize the blue ships! They're from Avista!"

"What?" said LionO.

LionO looked up as one of the green planes broke off in pursuit of a Mutant plane coming towards them. It attacked the Mutant plane with lasers blasting from its nose.

The Mutant plane exploded only about an ell or so from the city walls. The green plane kept on coming, waggling its wings at them in salute. It a sleek, fast design, painted dark green on top, blue-grey on its belly, and the ship had something like a stylized Tiger Shark mouth painted on its belly.

LionO caught only a glimpse of the pilot; the pilot's gender, or species, could not be told, but the pilot had on a black uniform, with a gold arrow, and a bright red helmet with a black stripe painted down it. The pilot waved a gloved hand at them from in the cockpit and blasted away.

In the meantime, in the air, Mumm-Ra, who was now again in his Mummy Form, hissed as he roared towards Kievski in his Storm Charger.

"Ancient Spirits of Evil….help me find that cat…help me find that wounded, dying cat!"

He roared towards the burning city.

He hissed a little as he looked at his sensors and caught a plane on his scope. "Heading toward my Six, are you?" he hissed. "No one can outmaneuver me," he said as he threw his plane into a mad dive and a flip.

"Rid of you," Mumm-Ra hissed, as he looked back, and saw blue energy whizzing past his ship. "What?" he hissed.

He looked back. The plane was relentless, and he could not get rid of it. It was one of the newcomers' planes, he figured out, but of a different design than all the others. Mumm-Ra's tormentor was flying a sleek plane that was mostly silver-grey, trimmed in gold and in red. Its nose held three prominent cannons, and had the number "02" on it in white.

"I'm going to warn that damned pilot off," hissed Mumm-Ra as he opened a comm-link.

All that came out of his speakers was static.

Then, the enemy pilot did a powered flip and shot at his plane.

His Storm Charger suffered a hit wing, and began to buck as the enemy plane nimbly flew up beside his, and, to Mumm-Ra's shock…

…he saw that not only was the pilot a human…she was also a young woman! Her shapely form, athletic like Cheetara's, was clothed in a tight gold uniform and boots with black markings. She wore a helmet of red with a mirrored visor that hid her face…except for embers of a Fire that burned in her eyes.

Then, her voice came into Mumm-Ra's mind. "So you lived, Suthekh-Ra? How did you manage it? What sort of boot of Lord Ekogaru's did you lick to live, accursed one?"

The use of his prior name enraged Mumm-Ra. "I know who you are, BITCH! How dare you insult me like that?"

"You insult me by existing," hissed the young woman.

"How is it that a girl from Earth became a near-goddess?"

"I did not walk an easy path, Mumm-Ra. My beautiful Earth. Blasted by the Gamilons long ago in your time; but fresh still in my memory. We rebuilt the battleship _Yamato_ into a space battleship rechristened the _Argo_ and travelled into the Magellenic Cloud to find the Cosmo-DNA machine, which would heal Earth. When trying to defend my ship and my darling Derek Wildstar, I turned on the machine. I nearly died, but began to change then. I had a hidden alien heritage that the machine awakened," said the woman.

"Oh….that's your story, human?" Mumm-Ra snapped.

"Yes! Then, we fought the Empire of the White Comet, and after I married my darling Derek, everything changed when the planet Pellias was brought to our Galaxy by Ekogaru. We defeated him with the aid of Aliscea and Astrena of Pellias, and with the aid of the Pellian Matrix. After still other battles, Aliscea gave me the Pellian Matrix, or the bulk of it, before she went mad. It awakened what turned out to be scraps of the DNA of Pellias and Iscandar hidden in my body from ages of descent. I also found I was the last of the line of the High Queens of Pellias. I wanted you to know this, and I wish you to know that I, the White Orchid, the Renewer, the High Queen Nova Wildstar of Terra, now Captain of the Space Battleship _North Carolina_, am about to finish you, Mummy, whom I have met on the field of battle twice before. Only this time, your end shall be forever!"

Nova raised her hand. A bright fire came from it that Mumm-Ra was able to see.

That terrible Light bored into his soul.

Then, the Sun came up over Kievski.

Mumm-Ra could not close down the visual sensors in time. Blinded and burned by Nova's terrible Light, and by the Sun, he screamed and began to twist and wither, being burned alive by that horrible Light as his bandages began to burn and his desiccated skin burned.

Then, last of all, he heard LionO gasping "HOOOOOOO!" as the red Light of the Sword of Omens hit his ship full-on. The ship began to explode, and he teleported out of his Storm Charger to the pit of his Black Pyramid. He needed darkness.

He needed to hide.

He needed the help of the Ancient Spirits of Evil.

Mumm-Ra vanished from the field of battle, defeated, as the energy of the Sword of Omens ripped his Storm Charger apart. A _coup-de-grace_ was issued by a missile from Nova's Super Star Fighter, and the remains of the fighter fell to Third Earth, causing panic in the Mutant ranks.

"Another ship is approaching the scene, Skipper!" said Wakefield in Nova's headset.

"How large?" she snapped.

"It's the pirate ship…"

"Green Hornets, break off contact with the Mutants," Nova ordered. "We have to attack Shinar's ship before he can bombard this battlefield! Let's take them from three angles! ATTACK!"

Nova waggled her wings over Kievski. A struggling LionO saluted his unexpected ally with the Sword of Omens before he collapsed into Cheetara's arms.

Then, he blacked out and heard and saw no more.

**EIGHT DAYS LATER….**

LionO woke up, moaning softly.

The first person he saw at his bedside was Cheetara, who now had on a white sundress. He looked down at himself.

He had on…nothing but his own fur.

He pulled the blankets over his lap as his face grew hot under his fur. Cheetara only smiled at him as he covered up.

She said, "Thank the Reverend Spirits that you're well!" She then hugged and kissed him.

He kissed back.

Then, the Lion sat up in bed, smiling as he saw WilyKit _and_ WilyKat coming into the room.

"When did you get better?" said LionO.

"Not long after your bleeding stopped, they said," said Panthro.

"I'm not out of the woods yet," said WilyKat. "I'm getting…these dizzy spells."

"We defended the City," said Halas, another one of the Dog commanders. "But, at a heavy cost. We lost Germasi in the fighting. He died very bravely."

"We have a major problem, LionO," said Panthro. "And a new enemy."

"What is it?" said LionO. "Pumyra's dead. So, I guess, is Mumm-Ra…"

"The Reverend One, the Lady herself, appeared to me in a vision," said Cheetara. "I'm told he didn't die. Not yet. She allowed you to live, LionO, and she also helped WilyKat get better. I also know where the last Stone is now."

"You do?" he said, excited. "Where?"

"An island state known as Ni'phangu; a few day's sailing across the Eastern Sea from Land's End at the fabled city of Xi La. If we can get there, we can gain passage to Ni'phangu," said Panthro. "Luckily, a ship is waiting there for us already."

"What sort of ship?" said LionO. "A sailing ship? A triamterene hauled by oars? Maybe even a steamship?"

"Better than all of those," said Panthro. "I got a glimpse, just a glimpse, of the fantastic ship those planes came from. You know…the green planes who helped us? They came from an ancient Human ship from beyond our time, beyond our space. The Past lives again for a bit…in the shape of the ancient Earth Defense Federation Space Battleship _North Carolina_, a ship, I'm told, of the _Andromeda_ class. They provided us with Thundrillium, LionO! They had a load of it aboard ship; the ancient Humans call it something else, but it helps run their engines, too."

"That sounds great," gasped LionO. "Why the long face?"

"Some other ships came in near the end of the battle. They were shot down, but one of the pilots was carrying a letter for you. He died," said Panthro.

"When?" said LionO. "When he crashed?"

"No. When I tore the treasonous Tiger apart with Bengali's help," snapped Panthro. "I recognize the seal on the letter. It's the seal of the Lord of Tineras."

"Which is where I sent…Tygra…" hissed LionO, who tore open the letter.

He began to read, out loud, through gritted teeth:

_A letter, from Tygra, Lord of Tineras, and Regent of the Throne._

_To, LionO, former Lord of the Thundercats, now without a political base._

_My Brother:_

_This letter is the hardest letter I have ever written to you, but it must needs be written._

_I have established a Base of Operations in Tineras, and I have come to an accommodation with the Powers that Be. While you fight needless battles and wander The Third Earth as a vagabond, I am rebuilding the Thunderian Nation in Tineras. We have the electricity back on now, and we are making this city beautiful and secure, with the help of the Coalition._

_Our Father, so-called, lost a war. Claudus is dead. The old ways died with him and Jaga. The Code of Thundera should no longer bind us. A new Age is coming, an Age where animal kind across the Globe will be at peace, and we will work with the Coalition for peace. Yes. I have signed a Compact with Lord Mumm-Ra. He is allowing us to rebuild, and He has promised us we can eventually rebuild Thundera itself from the ruins._

_I believe that due to my claim, since I am the Elder of us, we should recognize reality at last and realize you were never meant to be King and that you should abdicate, since you are not suited by temperament to sit on the Throne . I am, and I will be King when Thundera is rebuilt. Therefore, unless you wish to be marked as Renegades, I order you, LionO, to come to Tineras with the other Thundercats so you can do fitting homage to myself and to Lady Chaniell and to surrender to me the Sword of Omens. I will be merciful. You will be Third Lord of the Thundercat forces, after General Panthro. _

_To Cheetara; the ways of the Clerics are dying. You can train WilyKit as a replacement. I beg thy forgiveness, and I ask you to finish the Bond with me you were to begin in the Elephant Village. Then, in my harem, you will serve as Second Lady of the Realm, under Chaniell's guidance; and you can prepare her for her Anointment as Queen, fittingly, as the second of my Wives._

_I pray to see you back in Tineras in thirty days. I would hate to issue a warrant for your arrest as Rebels, my friends._

_Cordially and with Love;_

_Lord Tygra; Once and Future Lord and King of the Thundercats._

"_Whiskers!_ The bastard!" said LionO . "That deranged BASTARD!"

"I hate him," said Cheetara. "I'll never return to him…or join his…his…Harem," she said with scorn. "And he is NOT Lord of the Thundercats."

Then, she sat by LionO on the bed, held his hand, looked in his eyes, and said, "LionO, you are the Rightful Lord of the Thundercats. I am your Head Cleric, my King, the Rightful King, and I will not resign or stand down…and I also pray to be your Queen!" she said as her words shocked the others. "Bond with me, LionO. Let me be your Queen," she said as she held him.

"Cheetara," said LionO as he stroked the Cheetah's spotted, tawny mane on the top of her head. "I love you. I…I…accept your offer. Even though it goes against all protocol…"

Then, he pulled her close and kissed her.

The Thundercats applauded.

"We shall be Bonded in ten days," said LionO. "Bengali, Panthro, make all of the arrangements for a true and fitting Royal Wedding. And make sure a letter regarding the wedding and other matters is sent to Tineras _after_ the event."

"Yes, my King," they said together.

TO BE CONTINUED….

With Chapter Eleven


	11. Chapter 11

THE PAST IS THE FUTURE….

A ThunderCats Fan Fiction work by Frederick P. Kopetz.

The original copyright to ThunderCats is held by WB Productions © 2012. No infringement is intended; this is a non-profit fan work.

_**Chapter Eleven**_

"_**Some Unusual Bonds of Friendship"**_

It was evening near Kievski.

Panthro was sitting on the banks of the Dnieper River, near the dock district.

He was surprised to find out that the Dnieper was deep enough here to allow ships to come up the River. One of the local dock masters told him that as an after-effect of the wars in which Mumm-Ra had wiped out most of humanity, the river-bed had been made deeper than it was even in more ancient times.

Panthro was watching the different sailing ships, oar-driven ships, different kinds of junks from the Far East nations, and even a steamship or two on the River.

Cheetara came up behind him in her usual clothes and sat down beside him in the night.

"Where were you?" he said.

"I was out running. The purpose was to clear my head."

"Why, Cheetara?"

"Doctor Panremus told me that, honestly, LionO and WilyKit should now both be dead. Both of them suffered what would have been mortal wounds. But…"

"But what?" said Panthro.

"There's some sort of power about them. I can feel it," said Cheetara. "Something uncanny that is causing them to heal faster than they should have…much faster. The Doctor says that LionO just needs some time to heal and some exercise; the internal injuries are healing well, and he did not have to do as much surgery on him as he expected." Tears filled Cheetara's eyes. "He woke up earlier today. They were saying that might not happen for weeks. But what about Kat? What's going to heal him?"

"There's something weird coming up the River," said Panthro as he looked up. "Do you see it?"

"Lights," whispered Cheetara. "A huge object with lights…coming up the River…"

Major Graulus then came up. "No need to be concerned. I think I know what that big thing is. Believe it or not; it's not hostile. The City's already been in touch with it by radio…"

"Looks like it's just five ells away already, and I can already see navigation lights on that thing," said Panthro as he whistled.

"What is it?" asked Cheetara.

"It identified itself as 'a battleship'" said Major Graulus. "All of my tech guys were looking at the scopes and sensors, trying to get a good look at it. She's not only a battleship; she's a huge spacecraft; probably Dreadnaught class or bigger. Remember those green planes we saw in the battle?"

Panthro nodded. "That thing's like an ancient aircraft carrier? It has air wings flying off it? We haven't seen such a thing in thousands of years! Some guys in my military history class say that ships that big never existed, except in legends."

"What's she called? Did she report a name?" said Cheetara.

"She did," said Graulus. "Earth Federation Space Battleship Pennant Number SBB-55A…the _North Carolina_."

"Was that an old state of the old American States?" said Panthro.

"She was," said Graulus. "You notice her pennant number is just two digits? She's one of the truly ancient faster-than-light ships. The one with the greatest reputation is the Ghost Ship; the legendary SBB-01 herself."

"Did that thing ever really exist?" said Panthro.

"It seems we are in an age where the Legendary Past is fast becoming our Future," said Cheetara. "As it was when we first started out; I cared for LionO. I was sworn to his welfare. Now, the circle closes, and our past again becomes our future and I am again caring for him, rather than…our enemy. Then, what is it? Our Future is our Past? What sort of other circles are set to…close?"

_The Circle of Mumm-Ra,_ said a quiet voice in Cheetara's head_. And you seek healing for WilyKat and LionO? Do not look far,_ said the voice. _Their Future comes from the Past._

Cheetara had no idea where that soft but authoritative voice had come from.

A moment later, a siren and horns began to blow in the dockyards.

The dock master said on the PA system, in both the local language and in their Common Standard tongue, "All ships must clear the main channel. The main channel must be clear at the center of the River. The newcoming ship will be dropping anchor in the middle of the basin. The exact middle…of the basin…."

Cheetara then stood up. Her ears twitched. "I don't know if you can hear it…but I can…I hear the song of the ship's sensors. It's a distinctive pinging sound-they are reading the very ground with an ancient technology at a magnitude now lost to us…"

"Look!" said Graulus.

Then, they all saw the majestic pattern of multicolored lights coming up the water in the night. Lights of all colors, flashing and reflecting off the water.

They were awed. The ship had a deadly beauty to her in the darkness. A soft thrumming roar was all around her, and some sort of steam or vapor blew around the ship as she cruised through the waters of the River.

Then, Cheetara said, "I see the sailors on the decks in the dark! Manning the rails!"

"What sort of animals are they?" said Panthro.

"I see a very, very few Cats who are very, very tall…bigger than our species," said Cheetara. "In…only their fur? Oh, my Goddess! How can they bear to be that way…unless….are they the Ancestors? And the rest of those beings, in multi-colored uniforms…"

"Humans!" said Panthro in shock. "Tens…fifty…there's over a hundred humans…all saluting us with their hands at their hearts, with those hands up in fists!"

Panthro raised a fist to his chest in like manner as he watched the _North Carolina_ roaring by, with its flashing lights, huge bow, many antennae, and massive guns in naval turrets raised near the center of the huge ship.

Then, there were gun-houses on a massive superstructure, and, finally, there was a huge tower looming over that superstructure. Near the tower's top, near a construction with flashing lights on it, there was a small balcony of some type, with an open hatch behind it. A figure could vaguely be seen in the eerie blue light that shone on from the inside of the ship. The figure was tall, somehow slender, with the lower half of the figure's body hidden behind a balustrade or blast shield on the observation deck where it was manning the rail. The figure's face was hard to see, shaded by the shiny brim of an ancient Naval Cap in black and white, but Cheetara thought she saw a tendril of blond hair whipping around the figure's chin. The figure's long black great coat trimmed in red and gold could just about be made out, with a long white scarf trailing in the wind around the tall, slender figure's shoulders. None of them could determine the figure's species, nor even the figure's gender. What they had seen of the officer's coat told them that somehow they were probably looking at the mysterious vessel's Captain.

Cheetara picked up a strange sense from the saluting figure, though.

She guessed that there was a Power hidden in this Captain's mind and spirit, like a beautiful, deadly sheathed battle sword from the East.

The rest of the ship passed with a roar as she sailed up the River to her docking place.

"You know what I hope?" said Graulus.

"What?" said Panthro.

"I hope those guys really _are_ on our side."

"I sense they are, Graulus," said Cheetara.

The next morning came.

In the Dog City of Kievski, six days had passed now since the battle had ended.

LionO was sitting alone near the ThunderTank, in a pensive, serious mood as he worked on the words of a letter that he was writing on a scroll. He glanced now and then at the massive steel-grey shape of the _North Carolina_ on the River. The ship, as massive as a floating castle, was hard to miss, but LionO had little interest in the fantastic ship at this time.

He heard soft footsteps behind him, and he turned when he saw Cheetara approaching in the meadow he was standing in near the walls of Kievski, not far from the River.

"You…look…different," LionO said as he looked Cheetara over.

The young Cleric had acquired a different outfit; Cheetara now wore a light brown dress trimmed in lace that complimented her gold fur. On her neck, she wore a necklace of light blue crystal, with a dark brown sash that tied around her waist. The dress she had on ended at her knees; her legs were bare except for her fur, and on her feet, she wore simple plain brown sandals.

"Like the outfit?" said Cheetara as she twirled in her dress.

"I like the outfit, but I like the Cheetah in the outfit even better," said LionO. "Where did you get that?"

"It was given to me in appreciation by a tailor; she also made the white dress I will be wearing in four days, in the early evening, when we Bond at Sunset. And you can't see that yet," she said with a wink and a smile.

LionO nodded, standing. To Cheetara, he seemed a little stiff.

"How is the wound healing?" she said. "I was very worried about you."

"I've been better," said LionO. "Much better."

Cheetara nodded. "You would not believe my hatred for that traitor Pumyra. While you were out, we made sure she had no resting place."

"How did you do that?" said LionO.

"Panthro, Bengali and I made sure her bones were cremated, the ashes broken to bits, and then tossed to the River," she said as she gestured at the River. "You know that is the traditional punishment for the worst of Traitors, so they will never have a resting place in the afterworld…save for the very Pit. I pray someday we can do the same dishonor to the bones of another…"

"To Mumm-Ra?" said LionO.

"Well, yes. But I was thinking of someone different."

"Who?" said LionO.

"A certain Tiger," said Cheetara as she shut her eyes. Tears ran down her cheeks. "How could he say those things about me? After he used me, used me as a tool to hurt you…made me pregnant when he forgot he was Bonded to someone else…how dare he suggest that he and that whore he went back to would take me and enslave me in a harem like the worst of the Tyrant Kings who were finally hung on the gibbet by the Cats of the city six centuries ago in the Dark Times?"

"I should have known he would try something like this," LionO said. "Cheetara…I never told you everything about what happened on that day when we dueled after you lost the cub."

"What happened?" said Cheetara.

"He and I fought hard. First, we fought with staves. Then, with swords. Finally, he threw down his sword after I broke it while we fenced, and he went at me, animal-style, with his claws out. I clawed him and bit him in return. Our clothes were torn to tatters, both of us. Then, he did the worst thing you can do in a duel. Something so against the Code of Thundera that they say only Mumm-Ra and some of the Lizards have done this."

"Did he…go _below the belt_?" said Cheetara.

LionO nodded. "Yes. He tore my breeches open, shamed me with the utter exposure of my privies in front of everyone, and told them he would take my manhood and keep me from ever having an Heir, even if I lived. In utter pain and in utter rage, I fought off his punches, deflected his claws from…that…and then, I knocked him down and ripped out his eye. I would have torn out his throat if Panthro had not stopped me, saying the duel had gone far enough and I had clearly beaten the scum-master. Be thankful to the Reverend Ones you slept through that duel. From Rival…to…Enemy. An Enemy as vile as Mumm-Ra himself."

"What a monster," said Cheetara as she held him. "Thanks to the Reverend Ones you _are_ still intact, LionO…"

"How would you know that?" said LionO.

"Who do you think bathed you when you were unconscious after Pumyra attacked you in the battle?" Cheetara said with a gentle smile.

"I hope I won't be too…pained in the stomach to be able to Bond with you, Cheetara," LionO said. "As in the wedding night…"

"LionO, even if you are ill…you are getting over an injury, my darling," said Cheetara as she held her affianced Lord. "If needs be, we can wait…"

"I would pray to the Reverend Ones that we do not have to wait," said LionO. "A King should give his Queen the pleasures of the night after the Bonding of our spirits and souls…"

"I know," said Cheetara. "LionO…when we are Bonded, I am longing for you to share my bed at last. What can be done, O Reverend Ones? And…there is another issue."

"Yes?" said LionO as a coldness hit his heart.

"Under the Code, we should be wed, if possible, by a High Cleric," said Cheetara. "Or, at least by another Cleric. Yes, the Rebbe of the City has agreed to Bond us, but I would pray that one of our own can at least help with the vows, to make them fully legal, and to cement your rightful claim to the Throne against…that Usurper who calls himself King."

Then, the loving but troubled young couple looked up…

…and stood in awe as they saw a female Cleric, robed in white, and hooded, approaching them.

"Perhaps I can help," said a gentle but authoritative voice from under the cowl. "At one time, I was once a Cleric. In fact, you could say that I was the High Cleric of my Tribe, far in the East. And I was also a great ruler. But that was long, long ago, and far away, in the past."

"Who are you?" said LionO as Panthro came up.

"The Light in her," whispered Cheetara. "Oh, Goddess, LionO…the Light…"

The Cleric stood there. Indeed, the robes she wore above her bare feet made her look much like a Thunderian Cleric, but, there were differences. Somehow, they looked more archaic.

"Again, who are you?" said Cheetara. "I sense no evil in you…"

"That is because there is none. Permit me to demonstrate, please, LionO," said the newcomer as she raised her hand, which they saw was clad in tawny fur.

To LionO's shock, the Sword of Omens flew from its claw shield to her hand. She looked at it, and raised it to her hidden mouth and kissed it. Then, she handed it back to LionO. "Evil cannot touch this Sword. You know that. And why am I here? You could say, perhaps, that it is an answer to prayer…"

The Cleric bowed to LionO and Cheetara, and also bowed to Panthro.

Then, she threw back her cowl.

Panthro's mouth fell open in utter shock, because the Cleric looked like a young Thunderian Lioness with a honey-gold mane somewhat darker than Cheetara's mane, with distinctive curls at her cheekbones, a simple silver circlet about her brow with what looked like a small jewel at its apex point, and ears that projected outwards from a gentle face covered in tawny fur, but with dark brown eyes that were both sensitive and piercing at once. However, the gentle, feminine face had a set to the jaw that hinted at an inner strength much greater than the dignified, yet frail-appearing form that housed her spirit.

"I'm…sorry, ma'am," said Panthro as he looked at the young female's eyes. "My mouth dropped open because you look almost just like a Lioness I knew some years ago. She died about nineteen years ago."

"Nineteen years," mused the Lioness in gentle tones with a hint of strength in the alto voice. Cheetara began to shiver a little once she heard that gentle yet powerful voice. "What happened nineteen years ago that you remember with such sadness?"

"The death of our last Queen," said Panthro. "Lord LionO's mother, who died after birthing him. I hope you will not be insulted if I say you look so much like her, my Queen Leona that it almost looks as if she lives again in you…"

"No. I am honored," said the Lioness. "Permit me to introduce myself. I am called Mother Abbess Snowmane by some. The name comes from a silly incident when I was a cub, long ago and far away. You could say I do not come from here. Yet, my Order was once in Communion with the Thunderian Clerics. I've been wandering the lands when I choose to, and I became aware that you are in need of aid?"

"We are," said Cheetara. "He's…hurt. Can you pray for him or make an offering of some sort? I can help with the offering, if we need to make a kill and build a bier. Or, can you point us to a Healer who can make a poultice that will help him?"

"I cannot help with an offering, building a bier is not needed, and I know of a Healer, but one who can help your young WilyKit. He is not my province at this time, but I will eventually guide you to this Healer. But, what I do have, I can give to LionO."

Then, Abbess Snowmane rested a hand on LionO's breastplate.

Her hand began to gleam slightly as Cheetara looked on in shock.

LionO jumped as a sudden warmth and electricity of sorts went through his body. Suddenly, the aches in his healing abdominal muscles and the pain in his bruised gut, which had been operated upon, all went away like bad memories.

He stretched, able to move again without pain. Snowmane took her hand away and said, "Cheetara, I would like you to instruct WilyKit in how to conduct a fitting Bonding Ceremony. I will be there with the Dog Rebbe and her to aid her. I also know of an old precedent, LionO."

"Which is?" he said.

"It is Canon Law familiar to my Order and the Clerics of Thundera. If you know the High Cleric and his or her retainers have all died in battle, to keep the Order going, as King, you have in yourself the inherent authority to consecrate a new High Cleric."

"Is it…true?" said LionO.

"I have heard of such a law, but it was seldom ever used," said Panthro.

"That was because the need seldom arose before," said a familiar, yet distant voice behind them.

The others then turned…

…and, in shock, they all saw Jaga appearing as a wraith before them.

"Thundera is rebuilding," said Jaga. "LionO, you will soon have both a Queen and a new High Cleric. Who better than the senior surviving Thunderian Cleric on Third Earth, the woman that you trust and love above all others?"

Cheetara knelt before Jaga, shamed by seeing her mentor again. "I am not sure I am worthy, Jaga. Not after all I have done…"

"You have not only expiated your debt; you have triumphed, Cheetara," said Jaga. "Indeed, you and LionO have matured much in the past few months. You are ready, Cheetara. Do not fear the new path that lies before you; of being High Cleric and that of Queen. And I trust Abbess Snowmane to aid you and Kit. And I will be at your wedding, in spirit, yes, but visible."

"How, and why?" said Cheetara.

"Your father died sometime after your birth and you never knew him, Cheetara. A bride should have a father figure to escort her to her groom. Therefore, I will walk you up the aisle, Cheetara," Jaga said. "And, LionO, it should be no surprise the Abbess healed you."

"Why, Jaga?" he said.

Jaga's spectral form then walked up to the Abbess. He knelt on one knee and kissed her hand in something that looked like homage. "The Abbess, as she is called, and I have had prior dealings. Let us just say that."

Jaga then disappeared. Then, the Abbess nodded in his direction and said, "I must leave now, my friends. I have others to advise, and much to do. But, in three days, I will return to help advise you and Wilykit, and to ready you for your Bonding. Fare thee well!" she said.

She then flipped up her cowl, and nodded to the group, bringing her fist to her breast in a gesture that looked like a salute. Then, she picked up her staff, and began to walk briskly away from Kievski.

"A Lioness of mystery…" mused Panthro. "And she used the same salute that those Cats and Humans on the _North Carolina_ used."

"With a hidden power and strength," said Cheetara. "I sense, she is far more than she seems to be."

LionO began to raise the Sword of Omens, to his face, hoping to draw upon the Sight Beyond Sight.

"LionO, it will not work," Cheetara said.

"Why?" said LionO.

"Already, she puts a grey mist around her footsteps and about her person," said Cheetara. "She has a Light in her. And she can shield her goings from my eyes, and from the Sword."

"Who do you think she is?" said LionO.

"She's not evil," said Cheetara. "She said her coming was in answer to my prayer…_The Reverend Ones_…"

"Yes?" said LionO.

"The stories said that their Messengers could walk Third Earth among us. What if she is a Messenger of the Reverend Ones? Or…maybe even _one_ of them in our guise?"

The others looked on as Snowmane faded down the road to a small dot of white.

In the darkness, Abbess Snowmane walked East, back towards a path that would lead to another part of the Steppes.

She needed to be alone to think for a time.

_Events are coming together more quickly than we anticipated,_ she thought. _Maybe five moons, in the parlance of these people, have passed since I saved Cheetara from herself in some of her visions, she thought. Indeed, not long ago, I guided her again. She has a vague suspicion of who I am, but she cannot draw it all together yet. That is good, for now, until I lay at least the hand I am playing on the table, hoping it'll be four Aces._

The Lioness stopped and leaned on her staff_. I have others I need to visit, she said. He will be along soon enough. I feel the power of his coming from afar in the Realm. I know, my dearest,_ she thought_. You will guard LionO, Cheetara and myself if HE dares to crash this Bonding. I don't think the desiccated Thing would try that. He knows facing me directly is utter spiritual suicide, being a Messenger from the very Presence. Tygra. The matter of Tygra… _

The Lioness shut her eyes. She thought_, It has been given to me to see that LionO will pronounce an Anathema on Tygra in a letter. It will be my job to execute it personally. It may give the cursed Tiger great pause for his actions, and cause even the Desiccated Thing to step back. However, as wergild, I must accomplish this and see to it LionO receives his Cat Emblem as the second task. He has cast himself out by his actions. Then, there is a third task I must do. One I must be very careful and delicate in so doing…because I must again, for the second time in my being, break the Circle of Time, and create a momentary Grandfather Paradox…to offer someone else some carefully framed advice, and a gesture of Hope. It will not break the flow of Time too much. She already has the Prophecy. She has seen a hint of its fulfillment already. I will give her, in this hour of her Darkness, another flash of light. Or, why do I speak of that young dewy-eyed Terran woman still in the first steps of her Quest as "her?" Cosmos, we know who she is! _

_Still, _thought the Lioness as she saw no one was around_. It is a hard and delicate job, indeed, to advise one's own self…without giving away that which she…no…my younger self…must learn to pass through the Fire. Although I am tempted, so tempted, to walk off the knife's edge and lay it all out…_

The Lioness, or the Spirit who had taken the shape of a Lioness, sighed. She knew she would again have to pass out of her momentarily assumed corporeal guise. She looked in a puddle of water at herself, and shut her eyes.

She looked in the puddle at her reflection one last time.

Only now, she was no longer a Lioness.

Instead, She, one of the Reverend Ones, briefly appeared as the beautiful honey-blonde Human woman she had been in her mortal life eons ago. She smiled, and then, with a whisper on the wind, she was gone, her spirit flying away faster than the fastest breeze, to celestial realms where she knew Mumm-Ra could not go.

She had her own business.

One bit of business was to consult with Higher Authority.

The other was to meet some old, dear friends in the Celestial Realms.

LionO, Cheetara and Panthro returned to Kievski.

When they reached the inside of the City, WilyKit turned to them and said, "We've received a message from the crew of the _North Carolina_."

"Yes?" said LionO

WilyKit looked down at her feet and said, "The Captain would like to see you, LionO. We've received a message. The skipper of the ship asks that you bring Cheetara, Panthro, and WilyKat with you."

"When does the Skipper of that ship wish to see us; and how does he know of our names?" said Panthro, shocked.

"I don't know," said WilyKit. "May I come?"

"No," said LionO. "I'd like you to remain here with Bengali. Since you're being trained as our new First Cleric under Cheetara, it is time that you began to learn more in the way of duties. Go see the other Cats in our midst and see how they are doing as we take our trip."

"Of course," said WilyKit.

A while later, the group that had been asked for was heading towards the _North Carolina_.

They were to take a small Junk to the ship.

The Junk was manned by what were known as Siam'Ma Cats-a species of cats from the Far East around the City of Shangu near the coast of the Great Continent.

The Siam'Ma had mostly dirty-white fur with blue eyes and dark fur on their faces, hands and feet, and ears. They wore colorful robes and dresses, and they had quite an alien and exotic look to LionO.

The Skipper of the Junk _Paolin_, a Cat named Captain Xangu, who was of the Siam'Ma, bowed as he greeted them. The Thundercats in the party bowed back in the same manner, and Captain Xangu said, "Are you the Thundercats boarding that sleeping metal dragon?"

"We are," said LionO. "The Captain has called us there for a meeting; post-haste."

"Yes," said WilyKat, who walked in a decidedly shaky fashion. "It's my understanding they have a Healer aboard her that can make me well."

"You'll never get off her alive," said Captain Xangu. "Take a charter from me instead to go to where I hear you wish to go in Ni'phangyu; it'll only take a few days to cross the sea…"

"We've been summoned there by our Captain, who, I understand, aided us in the battle," said LionO. "I can't turn down an invitation like that, even if they are Humans…"

"I've always wanted to meet Humans," said Cheetara.

"Humans are cursed and strange creatures," said Xangu. "And, they have Cats aboard her who are strong barbarian monsters who wear no clothes. Cats who are seven feet tall and who can rip our sails with their bare claws! Cats who can see the future! Cats who are demons in cat fur…"

"We don't need your xenophobia," said Panthro. "We need to board that ship."

"And I want to get aboard her so I can be well," said WilyKat.

"Very well, then…I will take you," said Xangu. "But I want double the fare agreed upon with your girl messenger on the hover-board earlier."

"Here's thrice your damn fare," said LionO as he handed over all of the gold he had by throwing his purse at Xangu's bare feet. "Take us to that ship. Or do we have to strip and swim there?"

"I'll take you," said Xangu. "Thank you."

"I don't like him," whispered Cheetara.

"Neither do I," whispered LionO.

**FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER**

The _Paolin_ sailed across the River right to where the _North Carolina_ was docked, stopping near the mighty space battleship's gangplank, which was lowered.

Steams and vapors from something venting on the _North Carolina_ created an unearthly moan in the background as LionO, Cheetara, WilyKat and Panthro boarded the _North Carolina_.

They got their first sight of a Human at that moment.

They were surprised to see that Humans, indeed, somewhat resembled Monkians; hairless Monkians, to be exact.

The ranking Human there seemed to be a young Human with red fur on the top of his head and a white uniform with red markings, which included a red arrow on his chest, and he wore closed white boots with red soles. He had some sort of weapon on his shoulder on a strap. Cheetara was a little disappointed at the shoes because she vaguely wondered what sort of hind paws Humans had; did they have paws like their own, or ugly hand-like feet like Monkians?

_Also, how do they walk in those closed boots?_ Cheetara thought as she looked down at her own sandals, which had no front sole, allowing her to flex her toes against the cold metal surface of the gangplank, which felt very alien to her. _They have no way to grip the ground, or…the metal deck they walk on. How do they stay upright?_

The red-haired Human then blew a small two-toned whistle as the Thundercats boarded the ancient First Earth warship. He gave them a salute with his fist to his chest as a very tall Human in a dark green uniform and helmet turned a weapon upon them. This Human stood at one edge of the gangplank.

The other being standing at the other edge, also bearing a weapon, was a very tall Cat with tawny fur not that much unlike LionO's. However, he was far taller, at about seven feet tall, and looked a bit more feral. His fur was thick, and he wore no clothing except for a bandolier across his chest. The claws on his hands and feet looked very intimidating to LionO; this Cat's hands and feet were bigger than his own, and he was taller than he was by a bit over a full foot.

"Halt," he said in a deep, growling voice. "This is a restricted area!"

"Ensign, we thank you for your vigilance," said the Human with red fur on his head. "However, these are the local Cats the Skipper wishes to see."

"Of course," growled the huge male. "I am Ensign Agen, a Ralkhen member of the Pellian Naval Forces, on special liaison assignment with the Earth Defense Forces. Please pardon my lack of hospitality a moment ago; I thought perhaps you were spies. We have encountered enemies here, out of time and space, but I can see and feel you have been…_touched_…"

"By Whom?" said Cheetara, whose senses were awakening slowly as she stared at the huge Cat. "You…you have…some kind of link with all of your people! I can feel it!"

"Like the Cats of Legend," said LionO.

"Aye, we share a psychic link," said Agen. "Our link is with every one of us, our people, our Mother, and with our Lady and Patroness, the Pellian High Queen."

"Who is she?" said Cheetara.

"She is among us, somewhere. Where, you need not know! But We of the Race know exactly where she is at all times, as we are sworn to guard and succor her, but it is not permitted for me to speak openly of her whereabouts!" snapped Agen. "Kindly ask no more of me, I pray!"

"I won't," said Cheetara.

"How old is this ship?" said Panthro as he looked around.

A tall Human came down the gangplank from inside the _North Carolina_. The Thundercats noticed he had on a dark green uniform trimmed in black with black boots, and that his skin tone was different than the others; he had dark brown skin, and the fur on his head was shaved. He looked very large and intimidating, and WilyKat asked, "Are most of you Humans giants like these cats?"

"Hell no, I just eat all my cereal every day," he said in a deep voice as the others saluted him. "My name is Space Marine Colonel Paul Hemsford, head of this ship's Marine Assault Platoon and her Guard Platoon. We wanted to get into the battle, but instead, the Skipper just sent in the Green Hornets to work with those bird-creatures to assault your enemies from the air. On behalf of the Skipper, I welcome you Thundercats to the _North Carolina_. Which one o' you is Lord LionO?"

"I am," said LionO. "This woman here is my Chief Cleric and fiancee' Cheetara, and this man here in the dark clothing with the dark fur is my General Panthro. The young cat here is named WilyKat, a squire of my forces and a sort of Special Forces Lieutenant."

"The Skipper says he's the one who needs medical care, right," said Hemsford. "Let's get you up to see the Skipper. Ensign Agen, you're relieved. Mister O'Reilly, take his place at the Outer Guard position."

"Yessir," said the young Human in red and white, who presented his arms while Agen also presented arms. They nodded to each other as the guard changed, and then, they went inside the _North Carolina_.

They went through some corridors, where they saw glimpses of machinery of all sorts, as Hemsford said, "We'll be at the central people-mover belt soon-watch the belt when you board. It tends to knock you on your butt if you're not prepared."

The Thundercats got onto the belt, gripping it carefully with either their bare or semi-clad feet. They watched Agen as he used his claws and carefully boarded the belt, apparently quite familiar with how it worked as he checked his AK-01 Cosmo Rifle over as he boarded.

LionO was trying to figure out the Caste of the tall Ralkhen, but to him, it was quite impossible. The tall Cat, he noted, had a tail, but he didn't act anywhere like a slum-dweller or member of the underclass. Indeed, he seemed to be as well-schooled and as well-spoken as a Thundercat Noble, and he looked upon LionO with a strange expression in his eyes that seemed to be a mixture of pity and contempt. LionO noticed that under his fur, he seemed to have muscles on top of his muscles, and he also felt, rather than noticed, that he had a Sixth Sense…but one that was more honed and practiced, by far, even than Cheetara's…or, maybe even, Heaven Help them, Jaga's!

Agen looked at LionO and Cheetara and said, "Have you Bonded yet?"

"We are about to," said Cheetara querulously. "In just a few days. I'm scared."

LionO patted her on the shoulder as he hugged her while Agen said, "I've been Bonded to my Mate, Talski, for four years now. We met on New Pellias, although it was called Meccaner, then, around the time of the Battle of Liberation, where She first came to us like a Star out of the Night. "

"She?" said Cheetara.

"The High Queen," said Agen. "She's Human, mostly, with traces of both Pellian and Iscandarian ancestry in her blood. The Mother made it understood to us She lived a normal life, as normal as you can expect for a heroic young star-samurai married to one of Terra's most legendary Captains. She had already consorted with those we consider like unto goddesses when the Matrix Power was given to her by one we feared would be High Queen, but one who went mad. We do not speak that whore's name in our ranks anymore. It seems her madness was providential, and that the Matrix Power was meant to be given to this little Terran all along. She's indeed hidden-unless She chooses to reveal herself. When she does, it's not my business to question it, but I must say she's very impetuous and impulsive. She does things on a whim, apparently without much thought about it, like a tween, really. But Mother says she thinks on several levels at once…and that she's almost as wise…and as dangerous, as the Dark Lord himself."

"A tween?" said WilyKat.

"He's saying She seems to act like you and Kit," laughed Cheetara.

"Actually, she looks like an older tween, like you," said Agen.

"I think that's enough on the topic of Her Majesty," said Hemsford. "We don't want to scare these people, and we have no certainty to the fact that He is actually dead here, because one of his minions sure seems to be alive and bloody damn well and walkin' around in friggin' smelly bandages!"

"Tell me, Agen?" said WilyKit. "Are you…one of the Ancestral Cats?"

"I have no bloody idea what they are," said Agen. "Except that I know that some among us are trying to mate with Humans. The cats they breed are smaller than us, and look more like Humans crossed with cats. I mean to make no offense, but…"

"No offense is taken," said Panthro, who was quietly awed. "It appears that it's beginning already, LionO. They share some of our words…they look a bit like us…they.."

"Back to the damn present, you furry guys! We have to get into this car," said Hemsford when they stepped off the belt. "This is called an 'elevator' or 'lift'. It'll take us up through the Command Tower to the Captain's Quarters."

They boarded the elevator, and the Thundercats present were shocked when Agen punched a button and the doors hissed shut and then the car began to move upwards with a small lurch and a distant whirring of machinery.

It stopped a moment later.

The door hissed open.

LionO was shocked to see that they were in a small lobby before a set of large doors. He was even more shocked to be able to read a sign that said, in lettering like an early form of Standard, "CAPTAIN'S QUARTERS", although there was lettering above the letters he could recognize that looked strange. "What are those weird characters above CAPTAIN'S QUARTERS?" said LionO.

"Japanese for 'Captain's Quarters'," said Hemsford. "Half o' this ship was built in Long Beach in the States on a robotic production line, and half was built in Yokohama at the edge of the Great Megalopolis down in an underground dock where final assembly took place after the keel and hull skeleton were flown there from Long Beach. She's taken battle damage in our time to liquid nitrogen tank number four, which is why she's venting vapor and steam out the dump valve, which is broken. She can warp, but the warps are a little unstable until we can get some parts."

Hemsford hit a button near the door and said, "Captain, I'm up here with Agen and the Thundercat Lord and his party. They've been sharin' intelligence. They might be bloody related."

"Interesting," said a voice whose gender was hard to determine since there was a heavy static on the speaker. "Bring them in, Colonel."

"Aye, aye, Captain," Hemsford said.

Then, the hatch opened through a command from the inside.

"Wizardry!" said WilyKit as he jumped and hugged Cheetara's legs.

"No," laughed Agen. "The Captain just pressed the lock button from the inside.

A moment later, the Thundercats entered a good-sized room with a large metal desk that took up much of the room. No one was in the room except for a single person who sat in a chair whose back was to them at the moment.

The room was filled with glowing green dials, control screens, keyboards, and something that resembled an ancient Human Computer sat on the desk. Only, Panthro guessed that this computer would be working, because cables ran from it to plugs in the surface of the desk.

The desk was covered with blue-covered notebooks with plans and blueprints of something….LionO guessed it was the ship…in them.

Cheetara was shocked to see some ancient tomes and scrolls sitting open on the desk, too.

She glanced at them and saw, in one scroll, something that had to be an ancient _Sepiroth_ pattern of the Ten Spheres of Existence, annotated all over with ancient writing in a tongue Cheetara could not begin to make out.

Then, Cheetara's fine ears just made out a low voice…a Human voice…that of a male, on some comm device that the Captain had up to one ear.

The voice was youthful, and yet very firm and even slightly angry in its tones as he said, "Yes, Nova, we've just come through that rift ourselves."

"Why did you take the risk, Derek?" Cheetara heard the Captain saying in a low, gentle alto voice. _The Captain is a __woman__?_ Cheetara thought. _She must be a very big, tall woman…how does she get the authority to command these big humans and even bigger…Ancestral Cats…I'm sure of it, on such a big, wondrous ship? Was everyone a god or goddess in those days? _

Derek, whoever he was, responded with, "Well, damnit, I saw you go through that thing after the Bolars hit you with that device. Of course I wanted to know what happened. The Star Force never leaves men or women down on the field if we can help it. Now we know where the rift ends up, and have some idea of how to get you back. Mark and the rest of Task Force Fourteen Point One have the last of those Bolars eating from their hands. I gave those bastards a little taste of the wave motion gun before I followed you here."

"This place is semi-barbaric," said the Captain in a low voice. "I sent that to you already. Be careful."

"You need parts and you need to receive new orders from me," said Derek. "I'll meet with you soon. And put on your dancing shoes, dear. I think we'll be going to that party together."

"You're impossible…sir," Nova responded back. "Love you."

The Captain then shut off her device, and twirled around in her chair and stood up, sidestepping over two steps, and then stepping forward to meet the Thundercats with a smile on her face.

LionO and Panthro were shocked to see that the Captain was not only a woman; she looked to be a somewhat petite but athletic woman who was about five foot six or seven, weighing maybe just fifteen _stava _in their measure, or somewhere between about one hundred and twenty to one hundred and twenty-five oldpounds. She had on the black and red greatcoat that Cheetara and Panthro had glimpsed the previous night, with a white scarf tucked into the collar. Beneath the jacket, she seemed to wear a pleated white skirt that came down about to her knees, which were startlingly bare and free of fur, like her legs, and even her feet, which were almost bare in single-strap brown sandals. The question Cheetara had about Human paws was answered when she noticed that the Captain's feet looked not that much unlike hers, although they were furless and she had no claws but rather had finger and toe nails somewhat like a Monkian, but buffed, nicely clipped, and covered with a shiny clear polish.

Her face was her most arresting feature; it was furless, but the nose and eyes looked a little like a cross between the features of Cheetara, and as Panthro noticed, the lost Queen Leona who was LionO's mother, although the eyes were an arresting dark brown shade and seemed to have a mixture of joy and deep wisdom in them…along with a trace of the Fire.

Cheetara shook a little when she realized that there was some kind of link between Abbess Snowmane and this woman; for their faces were very similar…and so was the Fire in their Eyes. The woman smiled and pushed her honey-blonde hair out of her eyes.

Agen looked at her, saluted, and bowed deeply. "Skipper," he said. "I bring you the Thundercats. This is…L…"

"They are already known to me," said the young Captain in her quiet alto voice. "Agen, Hemsford, please leave us. We have much to talk about."

"Yes, ma'am," they said.

Then, LionO was shocked when the Captain bowed deeply to him, took his hand, and kissed it. "LionO, Lord of the Thundercats. I had a dream about you last night. My name is Captain Nova Wildstar, although my name in Japanese in the birth and marriage registers of my family back in my current homeland is rendered in Japanese as 'Kodai Yuki'. I am the Captain of the _North Carolina_, and, as you can see, the Ralkhen hold me in some respect, for reasons I'd prefer not to get into for the moment. You caught me on the phone having a talk with my husband, bondmate, and commanding officer Admiral Derek Wildstar, his name being rendered 'Kodai Susumu' in the registers in Japan. Now…let's see if I analyzed this correctly…you're Cheetara, LionO's fiancee' and high priestess," she said as she took Cheetara's hand. "You're Panthro, their General," said Nova as she shook hands with Panthro. "And you're WilyKat, Special Operative, and you're dizzy in the head from your wound and you hate that you can't ride your hoverboard. Did I call it right?"

WilyKat nodded fearfully, and he hugged Cheetara's legs and said, "She's a witch! She can see inside my head! And she knows what I look like without clothes on! Protect me!"

The other cats laughed while Cheetara said, "WilyKat, I think she just has a veer developed Sixth Sense. Do all humans have that?"

"Some do in my time, but not many," said Nova. "It's a power that's awakened in a very few of us. It happened to me some years after I sat on a machine known as the Cosmo-DNA. It was a machine built by the people of Queen Starsha of Iscandar long ago, and it was given to us so that we could restore what was then First Earth, which had been bombed almost to ruin by an alien race known as the Gamilons. We gained the machine and fought them, but we later allied, almost by accident, against an even worse power known as the Comet Empire. After that war was over, in brief, I married Derek, and then an even worse evil came; the evil of the Rikashans and the Technomugar cyborgs, led by a Dark Lord known as Ekogaru who is a great threat to us in our time and whom still lives. In part of the wars with Ekogaru, I gained a power…"

"The Matrix?" said Cheetara.

"Yes, but how did you know that?" said Nova.

"Agen told us something about a Hidden Queen," said LionO. "Ma'am, do you know who she is?"

Nova nodded. "Can you cats keep a secret? You look sort of like young, underdeveloped Ralkhen to me, so I think we're safe…"

"I promise you we will not reveal what you tell us, Captain."

Nova sighed and said. "Since you're so close to the mark thanks to you and Cheetara here putting together two and two to make six, the Matrix is inside me right now. I'm the hidden High Queen that my Ensign Agen spoke of. Sort of a ceremonial post, actually, except when the Pellians are in full-scale war mobilization against ; then, I'd be expected to lead them, and I would, since the Pellians and Terra are very much allies in my time. And I really have to talk to him. He talks too damn much," Nova said as she smiled a little, sat on her desk, and took a sip of a drink from a mug. "This coffee's not strong enough on this ship. I like it nice and strong. Otherwise, it's not coffee. Darn Mark Venture, always getting on my back about my coffee…As for my powers…I gained them through a cosmic accident, like Agen spoke of."

Nova put down her coffee mug, and then quietly closed one of her ancient books-but not with her hands…instead, she used her mind to close it.

This shocked Panthro, who said, "Did you just do what I thought you did?"

"Some people say I've become a mystic," Nova said. "I'm a physicist and doctor by formal education. I understand your young Cat here has a head injury."

"Have you ever worked on humanoid cats before, ma'am?" said WilyKat nervously. "Ohhh…my head…"

"I can do one of two things…or both," said Nova. "I'm the ship's Chief Surgeon as well as its Doctor, assisted when I have to be on the Bridge by a young Doctor who was in class in Medical School with me known as Doctor Sophie Fairworth. I would like the chance to work on your young Cat in surgery, assisted by Doctor Fairworth. I'd like to try some microsurgery first, but if that does not entirely do the trick…I'd like to try to do some mystic healing…"

WilyKat took off the cap he had on, and he showed the bald spot on top of his head. "Uhh…a dog doctor worked on me first-can we do the psychic healing…first?"

"Let me check that," Nova said in a soft voice as she knelt before the young Cat and began to feel his head. "Damnit," she murmured after a moment. "Who put a crude, primitive drain tube in his head with stitches?"

"Doctor Panremus…the best in Kievski," said LionO.

"A crude man who is a _butcher_," Nova snapped with tears in her eyes. "The drain is not even one hundred percent sterile! It will have to come out post-haste! He's running a risk of meningitis with that thing in his head. I can heal the parts of his brain that are swollen once I have a small incision open, and get rid of any need for the drain tube…and I can even grow his hair back."

"Will it hurt?" said WilyKit.

"No," said Nova. "LionO, follow me to our Bridge so that you can call the Kievski Council. Then, he's going into surgery…"

"Of course," said LionO.

LionO found himself on the Bridge of the _North Carolina_ a few minutes later, along with Cheetara and Panthro. Nova had called a Nurse, a human clad in a short white dress and white sandals, who gently took WilyKat off to what was called "Sickbay".

Nova sat down behind a large desk/control panel on a platform at the back part of the Bridge and said, "Would those of our ship's company please stand and introduce themselves to the Thundercat nobles aboard the ship? This tall Lion here is Lord LionO, this lady is Lady Cheetara, soon to be his Queen, and the tall man in the spiked armor is General Panthro. Combat Group Leader?"

A tall man with wild long hair and glasses, in a white uniform with red markings said, "My name is Commander Dashell Jordan, usually known as "Dash" to most. I used to be in charge of Naval Artillery on our prior command; now, I'm the First Officer of this ship; about to make Captain soon if I don't mess up…"

"Thanks, Dash," said Nova. A woman with a green arrow came to attention. "Your name?"

"Lieutenant Commander Fujiko Miyazaki, Navigation Officer," said the short-haired young woman as she saluted.

Nova then turned to the young woman behind the radar. She had long blond hair, and large light-brown eyes. "My name is Senior Lieutenant Sasha Wakefield, who's in charge of radar, analysis, and Living Operations."

A group of other officers was introduced. LionO saw that one of them, at Artillery, was a Ralkhen Cat with black fur named Dayliss. At the "Combat Radar" there sat a young woman with blue skin named Dayva Haanen; she was introduced by Nova as a "Gamilon".

Panthro looked over the crew, and he said, "Any Thundercats here?"

"Not funny," said Nova. "And you know it. Now, let's see to WilyKat's operation…."

**SIX HOURS LATER….**

LionO, Cheetara, and Panthro were sitting in a waiting room in the _North Carolina's_ Sickbay when a hatch opened. In came Nova and a young dark-haired woman, who had on green, loose outfits that Cheetara had earlier learned were called "scrubs". It looked to Cheetara as if they had odd cloth shoes on, but as the dark-haired doctor leaned against a console to remove one of the covers, it turned out that these were paper covers that covered the sandals they had on beneath.

"Well?" said LionO.

"I removed the drain from his brain with Doctor Fairworth's assistance," said Nova. "He had to be worked on carefully afterwards, and I had to…use my abilities…to heal some of the damage."

"I questioned that, Doctor Wildstar…until I saw connective tissue just growing back in there," said Doctor Fairworth.

"How is he?" said Panthro.

"He should be well once he comes around from the anesthesia," said Doctor Fairworth. "He…"

A phone rang, and Nova picked it up. "Yes, Homer? Let me hear this right…he just landed on the fantail?"

"We had to give him immediate landing clearance, ma'am," said Dash's voice over the speakers. "He says he's been in battle."

"Who?" said Nova, as she shut her eyes and then quietly said, "Derek…"

"Come with me, Lord LionO," Nova said as she pulled off her shoe covers and threw on a white lab coat. "This is going to be important. Cheetara, you and Panthro can go see your friend. He should be waking up soon. Sophie, take them to him. Dash, you're still in command until I get back," Nova said.

Doctor Fairworth saluted Nova, who saluted back.

Nova and LionO ran through the ship, coming to the fantail, where a silver and red plane much like the one LionO had glimpsed the other day sat on the fantail, smoking in two places where men with fire extinguishers put out small fires on the ship. This plane had a number "01" at its nose in white.

The cockpit was open, and a man in a red helmet and white uniform with the familiar red markings was standing up in the cockpit.

A ladder was pushed up to the ship, and the man, who had on dark blue gloves and knee-high closed boots, climbed down, and stood to attention while Nova formally saluted him. He saluted back, and then pulled off his helmet and threw it to the deck.

He had wild dark brown hair that nearly hung in his eyes, a determined look in his dark eyes, and heavy eyebrows.

Nova looked intensely at him, smiled, and nearly knocked him over as she hugged him. "I felt you in that battle, Derek, and believe me, I was worried!"

"Like every time I fly in my Super Star?" he said.

Nova nodded; LionO noticed tears forming in the strong female Captain's eyes. The long-haired Human kissed her on top of her head and said, "Well, Nova, here's the evidence I made it here. And so did the _Argo_."

"Who attacked you and why?" Nova said.

"We were flying a recon mission over a city about two thousand kilometers east of here; a place filled with cat-people of all kinds who looked like shrunken Ralkhens. Soon, a bunch of planes jumped Cory Conroy and I; some of them seemed to be flown by creatures who looked like Tigers; others by Lizards. I fought some kind of dogfight with a very arrogant-looking Tiger with an evil grin and…"

"An eye patch?" snapped LionO.

"Oh, there's _more_ of you furry bastards?" snapped the long-haired man as LionO snarled at him.

"I'm royalty, the King and Lord of the Thundercats, known as LionO, son of Claudus!" snapped LionO. "You'd best be more careful, _human_!"

"And I'm a flag officer of the Earth Defense Forces!" snapped the young man. "I'm Rear Admiral Derek Wildstar, Captain of the Space Battleship _Argo_, still known in some circles as the _Yamato_, and commander of the First Star Force! And you have a hell of a mouth!"

"And so do you!" snapped LionO.

Nova then stamped her foot and whistled. She made a big "T" with her hands and said, "_Enough_ of the testosterone display, guys! Derek, you're a commander of many men and women, me included. LionO, so are you! It appears you two are both on the same side!"

"Nova, how can that be?" snapped Derek. "Their Tiger men shot at us; they splashed Miyagi, they splashed Culhaven Junior, and they screwed up Conroy _and_ me!"

"That's because I'm at civil war with the Tiger," said LionO. "He's my brother, Tygra. And he's my worst enemy. Admiral Wildstar, I will offer you the best wergild possible for your losses."

"It'd better be pretty good," sneered Derek.

"You need to be looked at, and I think you need a drink, Derek," said Nova as she took him by the arm, quite firmly. "Really, getting ready to fight with our allies…I'm ashamed of you."

"And as for my leadership?" said LionO.

"YOU BELONG IN THE DOGHOUSE, YOU BIG CAT!" snapped Nova as she tapped LionO on the chest. "Men! SHEEEESH!" she said as she dragged Derek away.

"Interesting," said LionO to one of the men as he watched Nova dragging Derek into the ship. "He's her commanding officer, but…oh…yes," remembering that Nova had said she was a ceremonial Noble of some kind.

"We always wonder who wears the pants in that couple; they both do," said one of the damage control men. "Yet they love each other to have survived over thirteen years of marriage and they have five kids. The oldest two are now…uh…six going on seven. And they're as crazy as their parents," said the damage control officer.

"A lot of things are different here on your ship," said LionO.

"Yes, we've noticed the same about your planet," said the damage control officer.

**THREE DAYS LATER…**

Cheetara found herself taking a walk in Kievski, with her Bonding day being the next day.

It was a "girls' afternoon out" for her. WilyKat had healed up admirably from whatever Doctors Wildstar and Fairworth had done for him, and WilyKit smiled as she glimpsed her brother back to his old self, tumbling as he went down the street with Bengali.

LionO was busy in the palace with some crucial business with Panthro, the Kievski Council, Major Graulus, and Admiral Wildstar.

Cheetara had on a simple blue ankle-length dress, her brown sandals, and she carried a bag that she was collecting things in as she walked down the street with WilyKit, who was freshly outfitted in a smaller version of her gold and brown Clerical uniform, wristlets, and sandalboots. The outfit had been made in a machine on the _North Carolina, _whose commander, Captain Nova Wildstar, was walking along beside Cheetara in a blue shirtdress and her brown sandals, eating an apple.

"So tell me what this place reminds you of," said Cheetara.

"A massive SCA meet," said Nova.

"SCA? What's that?" said WilyKit.

"Where I come from, everything is modern and highly mechanized, except for large parks in and around our cities," Nova said. "Groups of humans form clubs to do various things. One of them is to recreate old history. SCA means "The Society for Creative Anachronism." Derek and I work in space and in highly advanced offices and hospitals, When we go to SCA meets, we wear clothes like the sort we see around here and play that we're in the past. That's what this place reminds me of. A massive SCA meet."

"Is that a compliment?" Cheetara said.

"Oh, it is," said Nova.

The women ended up going into shops to buy items for Cheetara for her Bonding day, which would be the next day. They bought ribbons, watched her being fitted for her dress, and saw her buying a beautiful lace veil.

As they walked along, another female Cat caught the group. She had on long robes and a hood.

She ran alongside the group and said, "Ah, yes. Soon to be Chief Cleric and Queen Cheetara?"

"Who are you?" WilyKit asked as she brandished her staff. Nova looked hard at her, fiddling with her handbag. Cheetara herself remained silent.

"A friend, believe it or not," said the young woman.

She threw back her hood.

"Abbess Snowmane!" said Cheetara. She bowed to her.

WilyKit also bowed, and said, "Pleased to meet you, Excellency."

But, Nova looked hard at her. Very hard. "I don't believe it," she said.

"You don't believe what?" said Cheetara.

"What I'm seeing," said Nova as she looked hard at Abbess Snowmane. "That's not your real name," she said softly. "And you're not even really a cat."

"Very astute, Nova," said Snowmane softly.

"Is…is she an enemy?" said WilyKit.

"I'm surprised you can't see the resemblance in our faces," said Nova. "It's about eleven thousand years after my time…but…but…this is…"

"Just say it, High Queen," said Snowmane quietly. "Just amongst us, should we share the truth."

"What truth?" said Cheetara.

"This woman…" said Nova. "Is really me. Or, rather, the spirit I will become after about eleven thousand years pass…"

TO BE CONTINUED….

_**With "A Bonding for the Ages"**_


	12. Chapter 12

THE PAST IS THE FUTURE….

A ThunderCats Fan Fiction work by Frederick P. Kopetz.

The original copyright to ThunderCats is held by WB Productions © 2012. No infringement is intended; this is a non-profit fan work.

_**Chapter Twelve**_

"_**A Bonding to Remember"**_

LionO sat in Council in Kievski while Bengali explained a contact they had just had with a fighter plane-from Tineras.

"The ship was picked up soon after Admiral Wildstar's plane landed."

"Did it attack?" asked the Boyar of Kievski.

"No; it just took pictures," said Bengali. "That's after it overflew our positions, Graulus' lines, and the _North Carolina_, whose anti-aircraft guns trained on her."

"Were any shots fired from the _North Carolina_?" snapped Admiral Wildstar.

"Negative," said Bengali. "The fighter plane didn't fire on the docks or the space battleship."

"Good. Nova's in town, and Dash knew what he was doing in holding fire," said Admiral Wildstar. "But that means they'll probably be back."

Hiyoshi Bando, the _North Carolina's_ Technical Officer, stood, saluted in his white and blue uniform, and said, "Sasha and I took a good scan of the ship. It had less than forty percent of its fuel left. Probably all she _could_ do was overfly the area and take pictures…"

"Actually, it didn't make it home," said an unfamiliar voice as the doors of the Council opened. In came Snowmane, Cheetara, Nova, and WilyKit. It turned out that Snowmane was the one speaking.

"How do we know it didn't get home?" snapped LionO.

"She says that…it encountered some turbulence and crashed about two hundred kilometers to the west of here," Nova said. "And based on what I've just learned about this Lady, I'm not in any position to doubt her."

"Cheetara?" said LionO.

"She's entirely correct," said the soon-to-be Head Cleric.

"But the enemy is looking for us; that's clear," said Derek. "Nova, how long do you and Bando estimate the repairs to your ship will take?"

"Forty-eight hours, once you bring us the parts from the _Argo_," she replied.

"It'll be done yesterday. Do you have them working on my plane?" Derek asked.

Nova nodded. "I can tell where you're taking this; you'd like me to being launching patrols?"

"Of course," said Derek.

"How? Half your ship is underwater," said Panthro.

"We have a pair of upper flight bays below our fantail above the waterline," said Nova. "I can launch a flight of three planes to patrol for a few hours by way of the catapults so we'll have fighter cover at all times."

"Get it done yesterday," said Derek. "Go call Dash now."

Nova nodded, saluted, and ran off to the communications room to call Dash and Homer back on her ship.

"After our Bonding," said LionO. "We'll want to head east; to Ni'phangyu."

"The islands off the Asian Coast?" said Derek.

"Yes," said Panthro. "I've been consulting the Book of Omens…the trail of the crystal Stone we're looking for appears to be in that general direction…"

"That's where it is," said Snowmane flatly. "It's around Shinedo. When you are ready to go, the _North Carolina_ can fly you there in a few hours to retrieve it. But if I were you, I'd be ready for battle; since Mumm-Ra will try to keep you from leaving Shinedo alive with the crystal."

"After that…I've had a vision of us attacking Tineras," said Cheetara.

Nova ran back into the room a moment later. "Ladies and Gentlemen," she said. "That fighter screen is going up. They have orders to bring down anything that makes an aggressive move towards us or the City. Bando also has a report about the fighter ship that he'd like to discuss with us aboard ship."

"That'll be technical data," said LionO. "Panthro, Cheetara, Bengali, come with us. Kit, stay here and retrieve Kat from the streets. We'll need to have a private meeting of our own later when we get back from the ship."

"Awww...do I have to?" said Kit.

"Yes, _you have to_!" snapped Nova as the others laughed. "Sorry," she shrugged. "It's from practice with our kids."

"Our kids," said Derek. "Whom I miss like crazy right now," he said.

Nova smiled at him. "I know…I miss them, too."

"Who's caring for them with you on your mission?" said Cheetara.

"A Ralkhen couple we have living with us known as Hegen and Fela. They have children of their own who've just moved out and onwards," said Derek. "Because of the vagaries of time-space, we've actually only been away from them for three weeks in our time, and it'll be only about three weeks and two days after we get back. We will probably be with you for a number of weeks, but when and if we successfully get back to our own time, only about a minute or so in 2214 will have passed from the time we warped into this time period to the time when we warped out and back home. It was August 16, 2214 when we warped out, and it'll still be August 16th when we warp back."

"It sounds confusing," said LionO.

"It's happened before," said Nova. "And it probably won't be the last time, either…"

**FORTY MINUTES LATER…**

LionO, Cheetara, Panthro, and Bengali sat in the Captain's Quarters on the _North Carolina. _

Nova had excused herself for a moment to change back into her uniform inside in her private cabin.

In the meantime, while they waited for Bando to bring the technical readout of the fighter ship, Admiral Wildstar drank some juice and went into an explanation of his past, which turned into an explanation of his relationship with Nova.

The door hissed open, and Nova came back out, adjusting her ascot as Derek sat discussing their children.

She smiled at them and said, "We have five natural-born children, six if you count our adopted son, Jonathan, whom I overheard Derek speaking of. Alex and Ariel are six now, and will be seven in a few weeks. They were born in 2207. Our second set of twins…"

"Second set of twins?" said Panthro. "Ma'am, may the Reverend Ones Bless you…"

Nova blushed and said, "Our second set of twins, Stephen and Anastasia, were born around Christmas; that's a major winter holiday for us; in 2209. They're now four going on five. Derek, I have that picture of them when they were newborns. Okay if I show them?"

"Not if you don't mind showing a lot of yourself in that picture," Derek said.

"Derek, it was hot then, and I had to nurse them both in the hospital. You know how it was." Nova blushed a little as she opened a family album.

The picture shown was of her lying in a hospital bed with one foot up, visibly nursing a pair of bare little newborns who lay cuddled against their pretty nude young mother's breasts.

"Awwwww….how sweet," said Cheetara. "Look at this, LionO…this could be our future," she said with a blush.

LionO looked at the picture of the young unclad woman nursing her babies, and then, he looked at Cheetara and imagined her like that. He smiled at her, and whispered, "Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow," Cheetara whispered back while she patted LionO on the wrist.

"Is this turning into…a…a…_mush_room?" said Panthro while the others laughed. Nova then took back the picture, gave her husband, Admiral Wildstar, a very un-military kiss, and then sat down beside him, resuming her composure as Bando was allowed into the Captain's Cabin by Hemsford.

Bando entered the room, saluted, and said, "I have technical readouts on the fighter ship. And…pictures."

"Pictures," said Panthro.

Nova acknowledged Bando's salute. She saluted Derek and said, "Sir?"

"Put them up, Mr. Bando," said Admiral Wildstar.

"Yessir," said Bando.

A moment later, several technical readouts went up, followed by some pictures. LionO then stood and said, "Stop. Zoom in on the pilot's face…"

Bando did that, and LionO snarled slightly when he saw the face. He looked at Cheetara, who angrily shook her head.

Admiral Wildstar said, "He looks like a Tiger. He's the one who attacked my men earlier."

"Tygra," hissed Panthro. "Now, he's here to spy on us. "

"He _was_ here," said LionO. "Lady Snowmane said…"

"His plane crashed?" said Snowmane as she appeared in the room. Bando stood up angrily, followed by Panthro, but Nova motioned them both down with a hand gesture. "She's welcome here anytime," Nova said. "Remember, Panthro. I know who she is…"

"I'm not going to do any of you any harm," said Snowmane. "That Tiger ejected from his ship before takeoff. He is now on the Endless Steppes, and I mean to let him wander there before I go to him." She looked at Bengali. "That unworthy Tiger is wearing what will be your Thundercat symbol, Bengali. It is better that you have it…"

"But I'll have to Challenge him for it!" said Bengali. "You know the code, ma'am…you…"

"You're wounded from battle, so if Lord LionO consents, I would appoint a champion to fight for you and bring you the Thundercat crest back, so that you can rightly stand in the wedding party as a Noble, and…" said Snowmane.

Snowmane was shocked when LionO stood, followed by Cheetara, followed by Panthro, then by Admiral Derek Wildstar, and then by Nova.

"Why are all of you standing up?" said Snowmane.

"Each of us…" said LionO as he began for the Thundercats….

Derek Wildstar finished by saying, "…each one of us wants a piece of that Tiger. Under Bushido, which is much like your code, it's my duty to avenge my crew's blood upon such a dishonorable person…"

"…mine too, Derek," said Nova. "And you know I'm no slouch with a sword, either…."

"Like I'm no pushover with my staff," said Cheetara.

"And…as _I'm_ no pushover, _period_," said Panthro.

"My dear cats and humans," said Snowmane. "I thank all of you for your spirit and determination. But the answer is no. The reason why, you ask? I am taking him on _myself_," she hissed as the room began to turn dark and both Nova and Cheetara felt a trace of the mighty being's power. "But I do prophecy that before this whole matter ends, before he dies…each of the six of you will indeed _each_ have your moment of single combat with that treasonous being who is a Thundercat no more," hissed Snowmane.  
"LionO. I understand you and Cheetara have written him a letter?"

"We have," said LionO.

"I've added to it," said Derek.

"Good. LionO. Do you have it?"

"I do," said LionO.

"Give it to me," said Snowmane.

LionO gave the Mother Abbess the letter, which was a rolled-up scroll. She bowed upon taking it, and then, she drew, from nowhere, a blade that made Nova gasp.

Nova herself had a similar blade, wrought of crystal, and kept about her person in a small extra-dimensional space. Nova's blade was blue.

Snowmane's was the terrible spiritual fulfillment of the same blade. Her blade was clear, and it burned pure white with a terrible fire directly from the Presence of One far Higher than even she.

"Tygra was dubbed a Thundercat with the Sword of Omens, some time ago. I will reverse that dubbing with my sword and give him a _terrible_ spiritual blow," snapped Snowmane. Then, she raised her blade, screamed, and vanished in a terrible flash of white flame with a thunderclap.

Everyone was shaken by this.

**A FEW MINUTES LATER…**

_**Genesis 32:24-26: "And Jacob took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had. And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a Man with him until the breaking of the day. And when He saw that He prevailed not against him, He touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was strained, as He wrestled with him…."**_

Tygra was on the Endless Steppes.

It was nearly night, and the Tiger was alone, it was near dusk, and he was frustrated because he had hiked to where his plane had crashed, and he had found it burning.

"Whiskers and _fleas_," he hissed. "My comlink's down, I'm in the middle of nowhere, and I hit that damned turbulence that brought me down. I ruined my Feliner. Damnit! Damnit, damnit, _DAMNIT_!" he yelled. "LionO, were you behind this?"

"No," said a voice behind him as Tygra turned and hissed at the approaching figure of the small, barefoot female Lioness in white Cleric's robes as he saw her loose hair flying in the breeze.

"Who are _you_?" said the Tiger.

"A woman who is having the rather indistinct pleasure at looking at your evil through two sets of eyes," said Snowmane. "I am the Mother Abbess Snowmane. I am a High Cleric from a far country, and I order you to do obeisance before me and to undertake a pilgrimage of repentance to begin to expiate the evil that you have created. I am a Plenipotentiary of the Reverend Ones, and the High Ones above them, up, yea, to the Most High Himself."

"How do you know my path is evil? I think it's for the greater good, Cleric," said Tygra with an arrogant smile.

"Joining forces with Mumm-Ra the Ever Living is not evil?" said Snowmane.

"It is an alliance for the greater good of Third Earth," said Tygra. "He is an evil power, granted. But, he can be controlled, guided, managed, he can be worked with; he can be accommodated. In working with him, we can have _peace in our time_!" said Tygra in a ringing voice.

"I pity you," said Snowmane. "Other people tried to make peace with a similar evil throughout the ages. In fact, a Human once said the same thing about another Dictator in the days of First Earth. Do you know who it was?" said Snowmane.

"Who?" said Tygra. "And what relevance does it have for me?"

"September 30, 1938," said Snowmane. "Long ago. The man who said those words was a man known as Neville Chamberlain, who was the Prime Minister of England, an ancient Human Nation, because he had just signed a peace treaty with a man who said that the conquest of a small nation was his 'final' conquest. He was proven wrong a year later when the same man he thought he could deal with, a German Dictator known as Adolf Hitler, showed him that it was not his 'final' conquest, and that his next conquest was the invasion of another nation a year later that began part of a World War amongst those nations. Hitler was a man who enslaved nations and slaughtered millions. Mumm-Ra is even worse; he has slaughtered whole star systems. What part of your diseased spirit thinks that you can sit down with such a being from the Pit of Hell itself?"

"I know much more than you do, you dreamer," snapped Tygra.

"Dreamer?" said Snowmane. "Dreamer? Are you mad? All right; I state that you have lost all right to be a Thundercat Noble by your actions. You are, hereby, and henceforth, issued a Challenge for your Thundercat Symbol."

"Which one of them?" hissed Tygra. "LionO? Cheetara?"

"No," said Snowmane. "Bengali."

"That mangy, disgusting, rustic, idiot of a stupid hick Northern Clan?" laughed Tygra as he brandished his whip. "Bring him on, lady? Where is he?"

"He will not come, for he is injured," said Snowmane.

Tygra laughed at this. "Who will he have fighting for him? LionO? That stupid human pilot with the long hair? Cheetara?"

"That stupid human pilot, as you put it, is a man who is your spiritual opposite, a man who has liberated worlds and peoples, a man whose name is a symbol of hope and freedom for billions, even to this day," said Snowmane. "But, you will be fighting none of them. For someone else has appointed herself the Champion of Bengali and the Thundercats this night."

"Who?" said Tygra arrogantly.

Snowmane threw down her staff, smiled, and drew her burning crystal blade. "Me," she said simply. "Do you think you can defeat me in single combat for your Thundercat Jewel, Tiger?"

"Bring it on, you minx," hissed Tygra as he drew his whip.

"You will regret those words," said Snowmane in a cold, deadly tone as she waited with her blade up for the Tiger to come to her.

Tygra, having no idea that he was fighting one of the Reverend Spirits Herself, advanced on the small but mighty Lioness…

And, the blazing spirit in the Shape of a small Lioness gave him the fight of his life!

He flung the tips of his whips right into Snowmane's face.

She parried the blow expertly with her blade and flicked it away as if it were just a fly.

Tygra growled again, and swung once again with his whip.

The blow was intended for Snowmane's midsection, but it again caught on nothing but her blade.

Tygra then used his whip to make himself invisible with an arrogant grin.

To his utter shock, Snowmane kept on coming, slashing at his legs and nearly making him stumble.

"How did you do that?" he yelled. "I'm not visible!"

"You are not invisible to _me_," snapped Snowmane as she relentlessly swung at Tygra again, at an utterly inhuman speed. This blow nearly took off Tygra's feet at the ankles.

Tygra landed badly, somersaulted, and discarded his whip for a sword.

He slashed at Snowmane with his own sword, growling as he meant to take the Lioness' head off. Snowmane ducked and parried the blow with a musical ringing sound from her sword.

Then, she slashed, he parried, she slashed again, and he parried clumsily.

Then, she howled and fire came from her blade.

Tygra dodged the blow by falling down and losing his blade. He got his blade up just in time, visibly winded as his relentless opponent kept on coming at him like a machine, gleaming slightly as her hair blew behind her, as if driven by an invisible wind.

Tygra just barely kept his feet on the ground as he dealt with Snowmane slashing at him, using a two-handed sword-fighting style that Tygra had never seen before, but which looked utterly relentless.

Tygra was shocked at the Lioness' utter inhuman endurance. _Damn you, you're the toughest woman I've ever fought…possibly, the toughest opponent I've ever fought, except for Mumm-Ra….how can you be stopped?_

Snowmane howled as she fired energy from her blade _and_ her other hand, at the same time. "Do you yield, Tiger?" she shouted.

"NEVER!" roared Tygra.

Then, Tygra threw aside his sword, and with rage burning in his good eye, he charged Snowmane, just barely dodging a beam of fire she threw…

…and he knocked her to the ground, trying to rip the lower parts of her robes off in the process.

Her robes tore, baring her furry legs. But, she blasted a bright ball of light into his face.

Tygra screamed, blinded for the moment by her Light.

But, he grabbed at her legs and hips, thinking it would be easy to grapple the small Lioness.

It was not.

The Lioness was very fast, dodging his hands as she grappled _him_ in a hold.

Then, he grappled with her.

Filled with strength and rage, she fought back.

Tygra grunted as this battle went on.

He lost track of time.

He was growing tired, and he wondered when this Lioness would give up or tire.

_She has to get tired sometime,_ he thought. _She cannot have limitless energy…I know that I don't…_

The fight went on.

Tygra got rougher.

He punched her in the face, even though he had never actually descended down to beating a woman before.

To his shock, she took every blow and returned the blows.

Punch for punch.

Blow for blow.

Kick for kick.

Tygra began to get bruised and tired, while Tygra realized that he caused damage to Snowmane…but after a few minutes, _it healed on its own_ as a Fire filled her eyes.

He punched her in the face.

She punched him back. Then, she kicked him…

…right in the manhood.

Tygra screamed, with his most private parts aching as Snowmane ran up and tripped him.

Then, gleaming with a terrible Light, she threw him onto his back on the ground and landed on top of him. "YIELD!" she roared.

"NEVER!" he roared back as he wrestled afresh with this terrible Lioness, who then used her feet to rake at his stomach.

Tygra grunted, wounded by her sharp claws.

"Do that again and I'll simply _emasculate_ you as you almost did to your brother," hissed Snowmane.

"How did you know that?" grunted Tygra as he again grappled with this Lioness.

The Lioness unexpectedly punched Tygra in the face; hard. He punched her back, but his strongest blow now did not seem to affect her.

It was then he realized that he was not fighting a mere Lioness Cleric.

Panic filled Tygra's face as Snowmane's hands went relentlessly around his neck. She strangled him and bashed his head into the earth. "YIELD!" she yelled. "**YIELD!** Or must I slay you and send you right to the Pit now, treasonous one?"

Tygra's vision began to blur as he realized that, at last, he was beaten in this fight…by a young female.

Then, she touched his hip.

He stumbled.

He then realized that she had done something to his hip. Something had been done to a tendon in his leg. Now, when he could previously run, he could now barely even stand or walk.

Tygra fell down, his legs shaking, as Snowmane was on top of him again.

He tripped her and tried to smash her head with a rock.

To Tygra's shock, she gestured, and made the rock fly up from his hand. Then, the terrible Lady Snowmane began bashing his face and cheeks so hard that she soon drew fresh blood, and he felt bones in his face breaking.

She was coming at him…

…like a killing machine.

"_You're…not…mortal_," he hissed.

Snowmane punched him again. "So you finally realize it! Do you _yield_?"

Finally, he nodded. "Yes," he said through a rasping throat. "I yield. I YIELD…"

Snowmane spat in his face and then she slapped him. "Get up," she said as she stood, dusted off her torn robes, and then caused them to fully reform about herself, again clothing her legs. "Kneel before me," she snapped.

A trembling Tygra did that, shaking at the authority evident in Snowmane's voice, which sounded like thunder at this point.

"I pronounce an Anathema upon you, Tygra," she snapped. "This Anathema will stand upon you unless you repent of your rebellion. Do you repent?"

"No," he hissed. "I feel I'm right."

"So be it," said Snowmane. "You are a Thundercat no more," she said as she slapped his shoulders with her blade. This caused his Jewel to go dark as his Cat's Head Emblem vanished and the Reverend Ones cursed him as a renegade and a member of the Accursed who had broken the Code of Thundera. Then, the Jewel itself vanished and reappeared in Snowmane's hand. "This will be conferred upon Bengali. Since I have beaten you, and I am his Champion, you have been defeated by him in Proxy."

"He'll have to fight me himself, someday," hissed Tygra.

Then, Snowmane gave him a scroll. "Open this and read it out loud!"

"What is it?" gasped Tygra.

"A letter to you. From your brother and his fiancee'. It is now the Dawn. Today is their Bonding Day," she snapped.

"We…fought _all night_?" he said.

"Yes, and you lost," said Snowmane. "Read it out loud…"

Tygra began to read, out loud:

"_A Letter of Condemnation._

_From: Lord LionO, Anointed and Crowned Lord and King of the Thunderian Nation, and from Lady Cheetara, Soon To Be Anointed and Crowned Lady, Queen, and High Cleric of the Thunderian Nation._

_To: Tygra, Former Thundercat, Former Lord of Tineras, now Branded Enemy And Renegade._

_Tygra:_

_This is LionO speaking. I was once your Brother, even though always belittled me, even though you always tried to make me look the Fool, even though you tried to undermine me, and even though you took (for a time) the love of the woman I respect the most from me. Must I also mention that thrice you have tried to kill me? Twice, in times that you and I are familiar with, my Rival, and the Third Time, in the context of our last meeting in our duel, where you attempted to use illegal and dishonorable thrusts and clawings on me that I thought only Mumm-Ra would use. As you know, I took your eye after you tried to claw off of my form the part of me that will sire the next Lord of the Thundercats, with Cheetara, who will be my Bondmate when the Sun sets again._

_I will address your letter point by point. But know you this. I pronounce you Renegade, and I know that the Reverend Ones are placing you under an Anathema. I know. One of the Reverend Ones, She, the High Queen, the White Lady, is to personally bless our union and She will bring me your Thundercat Jewel to give to Bengali, who will take your Place…_."

"You are?" said Tygra.

"The White Lady," said Snowmane as her form changed, and she became her true self, a young-looking human, dressed only in a near-transparent white wrap, and her own gleaming, terrible Light that hurt Tygra's eyes. "And, as the Most High Himself once did to a trickster in ancient times on First Earth, I, too, have been granted the authority to make you lame. You have wrestled with a representative of the Highest, and you have, likewise, been made lame. But, unlike Jacob, you have not been blessed, but, rather, you have been cursed! And don't you dare try attacking me in my true shape. If you did so, you would never get up again, snake of Mumm-Ra," she hissed in terrible tones. "Read on!"

Tygra almost choked as he read on and said,

"Cheetara and I will address your…screed to us, point by point. "

He then coughed as he was forced to read his own bitter words out loud.

He continued as he read, "_My Brother:_

_This letter is the hardest letter I have ever written to you, but it must needs be written._

Tygra: This is LionO writing. That statement is so full of it that it makes me want to vomit. And how dare you call me Brother, blackheart? Since you and I are Brothers no more. I disown you as family. Forever. "

"He disowns me?" gasped Tygra. "HE DISOWNS ME?"

"Why are you surprised?" said Snowmane. "You have disowned him. Indeed, you have tried to kill him and fight against him. Read on!"

Tygra coughed again and choked as he read, "_I have established a Base of Operations in Tineras, and I have come to an accommodation with the Powers that Be. While you fight needless battles and wander The Third Earth as a vagabond, I am rebuilding the Thunderian Nation in Tineras. We have the electricity back on now, and we are making this city beautiful and secure, with the help of the Coalition._

Yes, those are accomplishments, Tygra. However, we have the potential to do more, much, much more, when we retake and rebuild Thundera. I am confident we will do so, and I am confident you will soon see me again in the Royal Palace we grew up in. But you will be in chains. "

"DAMN YOU!" roared Tygra. "DAMN YOU, LIONO!"

"No, damn YOU!" roared Snowmane as she struck him again. "Read on, madman!"

Tygra was close to crying as this relentless Being stared hard at him, changing back into her Lioness form. Then, he began to sob as he read out loud, "_Our Father, so-called, lost a war. Claudus is dead. The old ways died with him and Jaga. The Code of Thundera should no longer bind us. A new Age is coming, an Age where animal kind across the Globe will be at peace, and we will work with the Coalition for peace. Yes. I…I..I… have signed a Compact with Lord Mumm-Ra. He is allowing us to rebuild, and He has promised us we can eventually rebuild Thundera itself from the ruins._

You are mistaken, Tygra. It will not be you who rebuilds Thundera. I have already foreseen that it shall be I who rebuilds that great City. And your Compact with Mumm-Ra, I have also foreseen, will come to naught. Mumm-Ra will stab you in the back like every tool he uses. "

"HE WILL NOT! YOU LIE!" screamed Tygra.

"No, YOU lie," hissed Snowmane. "Read on!"

"You bitch," he hissed.

Snowmane punched him in the gut. He gasped as she held the letter to him.

He grabbed it, and when he got his breath back, he read on, "_I believe that due to my claim, since I am the Elder of us, we should recognize reality at last and realize you were never meant to be King and that you should abdicate, since you are not suited by temperament to sit on the Throne . I am, and I will be King when Thundera is rebuilt. Therefore, unless you wish to be marked as Renegades, I order you, LionO, to come to Tineras with the other Thundercats so you can do fitting homage to myself and to Lady Chaniell and to surrender to me the Sword of Omens. I will be merciful. You will be Third Lord of the Thundercat forces, after General Panthro. _

That will never happen, Tygra. I am Lord of the Thundercats, and King. Cheetara is my Queen. And we have many, many allies now. And if anyone unites the animals of Third Earth; it will be me."

"SHE IS NOT HIS QUEEN!" he roared. "She cannot be!"

Snowmane opened a passage in time-space. "Look at Cheetara. Look at her!"

"She's in white! And she's laughing! With Damn WilyKit and with…with…with…another human! Who is that human helping her get dressed?"

"My own younger self," said Snowmane.

Tygra hissed and snarled as he saw that WilyKit was now in a smaller version of Cheetara's outfit, with identical shorts, top, greaves, and sandalboots.

Bells began to ring in the distance as Kievski as Snowmane said, "I must leave soon."

"Why?" Tygra hissed.

"Because I have to be there to anoint Cheetara as the new High Cleric of Thundera, and then to help marry the couple as darkness comes. Read out loud what you said to the new Successor of Jaga, who is about to receive a Helm like his. Read your own words! Your rash, idiotic words. And read Cheetara's response to them!"

"You are a SADIST," said Tygra.

"No worse than Thee," said Snowmane.

Tygra coughed and read, "_To Cheetara; the ways of the Clerics are dying. You can train WilyKit as a replacement. I beg thy forgiveness, and I ask you to finish the Bond with me you were to begin in the Elephant Village. Then, in my harem, you will serve as Second Lady of the Realm, under Chaniell's guidance; and you can prepare her for her Anointment as Queen, fittingly, as the second of my Wives._

I, Cheetara, Queen of the Thundercats and High Cleric and Successor to Jaga, now write to you, Tygra. I will never forgive you…."

"DAMN YOU, CHEETAAAARA!" howled Tygra as he tore his own fur. "I don't want to read anymore…"

"Read," snapped Snowmane.

Tygra read, in a barely audible voice, "…Not after you used me before we were Bonded, not after you deceived me to your character and motives, and I have no interest whatsoever in being in your arms, your Harem, whatever. Why? Because I have my King. I am bonded now to LionO, Tygra. And I love him, and he returns that love. Unlike you. I will never be one of your wives. And do not ask me to wish for happiness between you and Chaniell. She will give you no happiness. In fact, that snake will help Mumm-Ra stab you in the back. But I only foretell, based on what I have foreseen. 

_I pray to see you back in Tineras in thirty days. I would hate to issue a warrant for your arrest as Rebels, my friends._

_Cordially and with Love;_

_Lord Tygra; Once and Future Lord and King of the Thundercats"_

"Is that enough?" hissed Tygra.

"Read more. There is more. No. I will read it."

Snowmane then took the scroll and read, in a clear, cold voice, "This is both LionO and Cheetara writing. We will never come at your beck and call. We have no love for you, Traitor. And we will see to it you are arrested. For YOU are the Rebel.

Lord LionO and Lady Cheetara. The True Lord and Lady of the Thundercats."

Then, Snowmane smiled and said, "And one more person had words for you."

"WHO?" yelled Tygra.

"Derek," Snowmane said with a smile. "My once and present love."

She then read, using the intonation and tones of her long-time Bondmate, "**PS-I am writing to you, myself, in large bold letters so that you can see it.**

**Your fighter planes attacked a peaceful recon patrol from my vessel the other day. You killed two of my pilots and you damaged my plane. Because of those actions, unless you send me an explanation and apology by letter or comm signal, or unless you appear before me to explain your actions, it will not go well for you. I, along with the Captain from my Task Force who came to this Godforsaken place and Time with me, will consider your planes and ships to be hostile forces when we meet again unless an explanation is forthcoming.**

**And, bear in mind….two space battleships from what you call First Earth can devastate your forces. Think carefully before you act again. And, note I am allied to Lord LionO and his forces.**

**Best Regards, Commander to Commander,**

**Rear Admiral Derek Wildstar**

**The Commanding Officer, SBB-01, Space Battleship **_**Argo**_**. "**

"So end my words to you, Tygra," said Snowmane. "I have places to go. Let me know if ever you wish to repent. I may be merciful," she said.

Then, she vanished.

Tygra was left kneeling in the dirt clutching the letter.

He put his face against the ground and screamed, utterly defeated.

**LATER THAT MORNING….**

Cheetara now had on a set of new white Clerical robes made for her in Kievski.

She had on the robes over her white wedding dress, but she didn't need to let LionO know that…not yet.

She was standing near the Temple in that City, being Anointed as the new High Cleric by Snowmane and the Boyar of Kievski.

LionO knelt before her and placed a spiked helmet similar to Jaga's on her head.

She knelt before LionO and swore a new Oath to his protection.

He dubbed her with the Sword of Omens, and then kissed her as she stood.

"Cleric WilyKit," said Cheetara as WilyKat and Bengali robed her in the white robes of the Order. "I invest you as the first of my Clerics, and pronounce your apprenticeship over. Are you willing to swear an Oath to defend your King?"

"I am," said WilyKit. She knelt and took her Oath before LionO and Cheetara, rising as Cheetara handed her own staff and hugged her. Snowmane then blessed her, followed by Cheetara as WilyKit stood proud down to her toes.

Bengali was the last one to come forward before LionO. "Bengali, you have been healed by our friends," he said, nodding at Snowmane and Nova, who had healed him. "Do you swear to join our Order of Thundercats and to defend the Throne and order of Clerics?"

"I do," said Bengali.

"I dub thee a Thundercat, far more worthy of the Title as a Noble than he who last wore this Jewel," said LionO as he placed the Jewel on Bengali's uniform. There came the mystical growl and the Cat's Head Emblem again proudly appeared as the Jewel came to life as LionO empowered it and placed it in accord with the Sword of Omens.

Bengali knelt and was tapped by LionO. He rose as a full Thundercat at last.

"Now?" said Bengali.

"We will adjourn this Moot," said Panthro. "We will meet again…at sunset…for the Joining of Lord LionO, and the High Cleric and Queen Lady Cheetara."

The group went off to celebrate as bells rang.

**SUNSET….**

LionO stood nervously before a dais in front of the Temple in Kievski as the Chief Rebbe and his attendants set up a white canopy as the Dogs of Kievski gathered carrying lamps and candles.

"Well, you made it here," said Bengali.

"I still can't quite believe it," said LionO. "After all we've been through…after all our travels, all our battles…we will continue our search for the Fourth Jewel…Cheetara is going to swear that she will be with me…and then to form a Bond with me. I feel so…so…"

"Scared?" said Admiral Derek Wildstar as he came up to the Thundercat Lord in his dress black coat and Naval Cap

LionO nodded.

"When I married Nova…I was scared, too," said Derek.

WilyKit came out, holding a small book. Her first official duty as a Cleric would be to legally Bond LionO and Cheetara, and she was nervous as she ran the words through her mind. She said, "Kat, they're saying that today is like one of their ceremonies for young ones…a 'Mitzvoth'. What's that?"

Kat smiled and said, "Oh, you'll get it…one of these days…"

"Whose arm is she coming out on?" said Major Graulus as he showed up, laughing and happy.

"Panthro's," said LionO. "She…"

"Shhh…" said Graulus as a bell rang.

Graulus and Bengali stood to each side of LionO, along with Admiral Derek Wildstar and some of his men; a tall man known as Stephen Sandor, and a chubby man known as Chris Eager.

Then, a moment later, a little girl of Kievski came out, scattering flowers, as out came Nova and Abbess Snowmane, who were both in blue sundresses, and were both barefoot.

They stood near the canopy as, a moment later, Cheetara came out on the arms of two men….

…one was Panthro….

…and the other was the spectral form of Jaga.

Cheetara was in a long white dress with lace around the bodice. She had white daisies around her head in something like a simple crown. She had white sandals on her feet, and she was calm and smiling at LionO as she had her hands placed in his by Abbess Snowmane.

Then, the Rebbe prayed, and then he blessed them as WilyKit began to pronounce the Rite of Bonding.

"And," she said in a clear voice. "As we have come here for this purpose…I ask, Lord LionO, do ye take this woman, the Lady Cheetara, Thy High Cleric…uh…as Queen and Bondmate?"

"I…I do," stammered LionO.

"And, do you, Lady Cheetara, High Cleric of Thundera, do ye take this man, the Lord LionO…as King and Bondmate?"

"I do," said Cheetara.

"Therefore, I pronounce ye two…uhhh…Bonded," said WilyKit. "Rebbe Merson, do you agree?"

"I agree," said the old Dog Cleric.

"Lady Snowmane, do you agree?"

"I so," she said.

"LionO…you can now kiss your Bondmate!" said WilyKit.

And, he took Cheetara, his Mate, in his arms.

And, they kissed.

They kissed a kiss that ran hot down to their toes.

Then, they held hands, and as the group outside held up their candles and sang a solemn, beautiful, haunting song in the Kievski tongue, they entered into the Temple with Snowmane and Nova, and the doors closed.

Inside the Temple, they would not come out again to join the part later that night until they had changed their clothing...

…and consummated their Bond.

_**HERE ENDS "THE PAST IS THE FUTURE"**_

_**The story will continue with a One-Shot called "A Bonding Night"**_

…_**and will carry on with A Thundercats/Star Blazers/Yamato crossover "The Future is the Past"**_

_**Thank you for the great reviews!**_

_**-Freddo **_


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